Trip to the oort cloud

What kind of technology would it take to travel to the oort cloud? Is there a way to get there in the near future? It would be to the edge of the solar system, and it would be a step to research what's out there on a trip to colonize out of the solar system.

"The Oort cloud is an immense spherical cloud surrounding the planetary system and extending approximately 3 light years, about 30 trillion kilometers from the Sun. This vast distance is considered the edge of the Sun's orb of physical, gravitational, or dynamical influence." - www.solarviews.com...

30 trillion ks from the sun, is about 29.85 trillion kilometers away from the earth. (assuming straight line)

So technology far beyond what we currently have now.

i know that voyager probe is nearing the edge of the solar system. it's no where near the oort cloud though, just going into the kuiper belt.

as for technology to get to the oort cloud? unless some dramatic brealthrough occurs, i don't see it happening any time soon.

Ahh, cmdr, this is where we will disagree

If we chose to, we could go to the oort belt. As commander said, voyager is going through the kuiper belt right now. It will (pending a collision with a comet) reach the oort cloud. Voyager, however, was not designed to last that long, and was designed to have more planetary solar system missions. Were we to, with current technology, outfit a probe to check out the oort belt, it would get there, and it would be capable of transmitting results and analysis back here to earth. The only problem would be the amount of time to reach it. If we have a new propulsion system (sorry, my spelling sucks ) it might be sooner. However, as we stand now, one .1 watt battery can keep a circuit going for about 50 years, as far as maintaining memory. I'm sure scientists and astronomers would have a rough estimate of how long it would take this probe to reach the oort cloud. Put a timer on the probe to switch from auxilary power to main, transmitting, power when it hits that time, it would have the power to transmit information, and the ability.

So as far as technology goes, we have it now to explore the oort cloud. We just don't have the technology to do so quickly...yet.

ah, but jj... you have to factor in the harshness of space. i mean, what are the chances of surviving? i mean, just getting it through planning would be an amazing feat with the way NASA (donna about the ESA or anything else) works!

and i agree though, we just don't have the technology yet.

hmm... I guess i won't hear of that on the news anytime soon