"I hope its not the last of space exploration"

Human nature being what it is, I'm sure it will not be the last. It's cheaper to mount unmanned space missions because you don't have to worry about getting the craft back home again, and these missions can be more ambitious in scale.

Voyager 1 has been travelling out towards interstellar space for almost 35 years now and is currently about 11 billion miles out from earth. It is about to become the first man-made object to leave the solar system. Unless it hits something (or is hit by something)it will continue to send back data for about another 12 years, by which time it will be well into deep space. It will continue its journey for ever, passing within a light year of another star in 40,000 years' time. I probably won't be around by then, but I'm sure it will be discussed in the forum.