Voyager 2 Completes the Grand Tour and Heads Out of the Solar System

Date: December 1990 A.D.
Author: Science Writer

Dear Journal,
     The first tour of the solar system has been completed. Mariner probes scanned Venus, Mars, and Mercury; Viking landed on Mars; Pioneer crossed Pluto's orbit; and Voyager 2 traversed to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and now has left the solar system.
     And the second tour is just beginning. Magellan is mapping in high resolution most of Venus. Galileo will soon explore Jupiter's moons and radiation belts, while its probe will plunge into Jupiter itself. Ulysses will study the sun.
The last three projects were launched by the space shuttle, which in a recent report, fails to provide low-cost and routine access to space. However, it's the best we've got right now. 
     Speaking of low cost, I hear that a physicist named Freeman Dyson is suggesting that NASA begin to use tiny two-pound spacecraft to explore the solar system. These astrochickens, which he calls them, are very inexpensive to build and launch, and hundreds can be launched at the same time. They will use solar electric propulsion for power and explore the solar system using advanced artificial intelligence. I think it is a good idea.