Do we have the technology to send out a better, faster, longer lasting Voyager type probe?

I've been reading that the Voyager 1 space probe will no longer have power to use any of it's systems in 2025. Which is amazing considering when this thing was built and launched. My question is could we build a better space probe to go out into interstellar space faster and with more power so that we could continue to make measurements further outside our own solar system? If we do, why hasn't one been built and sent off yet?|||Better, faster, and longer lasting than the Voyager probes? Yes.





Fast enough and long-lasting enough to be more useful? Not really.





It would take hundreds of thousands of years for anything we could build to reach another star system, and there is no indication that there is anything interesting to look at between our system and others. Even if we could build something that would last that long, what do you think the odds are that we'll still be interested in it when it gets to its destination? Think about how much we've changed just in the last few hundred years.|||The longevity of the Voyager probe is not so much a matter of technology than it is the amount of plutonium fuel that they supplied to its thermoelectric generator. The Voyager probes were launched during a rare slingshot alignment of the outer planets, and their purpose was mainly for studying those during fly bys. The New Horizons space probe was built and launched with similar purpose, to study Pluto. It will also escape the solar system after flying by pluto in 2015.|||One hasn't been built primarily due to the cost and the willingness to do so. There are other priorities for the space program for other studies and objectives so long range exploration is on the back burner for the moment. Yes the technology is there to build a better unit and with more power and better power utilization etc.|||Voyager is NOT an interstellar probe.





It was an interplanetary probe visiting Jupiter, Saturn Uranus and Neptune when they lined up.





Technology (in rocket ships) has not improved since then and another "grand tour" is no longer possible as the planets no longer line up, (nor will they for another 250 years)





Since then we have launched ships into orbit round Jupiter and Saturn that have sent back much more information than Voyager|||We do have the technology but not enough money right now.|||I think so.|||no we use sling shot effects of planets to accelerate the probes.|||There's no good reason why not. Voyager 1 was designed to study the Solar System's gas giant planets, it was not intended with extrasolar science in mind. Plus, we now have another 34 years of technological advancement since it was launched, so our computers and instruments are better (even if not much advancement has been made in the fields of drives and power sources).





There are several main reasons why no purpose-built extrasolar probe has been launched yet. First, the planets tend to be more interesting to us than the relatively empty space out beyond the orbits of the planets, and thus easier to get planning and funding for. Second, because it takes a long time for a spacecraft to get out that far, an extrasolar probe is a relatively long-term investment, and the politics of the space science organizations might change before the probe even reaches its target region, making it therefore a high-risk investment as well. Third, it just plain gets harder to transmit signals between the Earth and the spacecraft as the distance to the spacecraft increases.