Space Exploration - Deep Space Probes?

Actually there are 4 probes that have left the main part of the Solar system and are headed out into interstellar space. They are the two Pioneer probes (now dead due to the decay of their power sources) and the two Voyager probes which are still active and sending back data. New Horizons will be doing a flyby of Pluto as it heads outward as well. The problem is the distance. At current technology it would take many thousands of years to reach even the nearest star, and then it would take years for a radio signal of anything discovered to return here. Keeping probes powered for that long is also a problem.