Humanity’s greatest journey so far has only reached the closest world to us: the Moon ... in a universe that stretches endlessly in every direction and is seemingly infinite.

It's kind of wild to think about: we might end up collapsing our own civilization before we ever make it beyond our solar system.

At this point, I suspect the next real explorers won't be us, but probes carrying intelligent machines..our robotic descendants venturing where we can’t.

Many see this as the answer to the Fermi paradox. Any society on the path to being advanced enough to potentially leave their system probably gains the ability to destroy themselves before getting to that point.

Short terms issues preventing long term gains.

Both Voyager space probes are way farther away than the moon. Is this a reference I'm not understanding?

"we might end up collapsing our own civilization before we ever make it beyond our solar system."

Given what I see in the past 15 years, I don't particularly see that as a problem, honestly.