Has anyone heard of any plans for a extra solar system probe? i read some time ago about they might use the Ares 5 to get it out there.

I think I've posted this link before. You're probably aware of it, but here goes anyway:
http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~diedrich/sola...m_beam_sail.pdf

I had not seen this before, Nigel; thanks!

An interstellar medium mission makes a lot more sense if it's dual-utilized as a technology demonstrator; like it!

It would be nice...I would like to see a quickie flyby of Uranus or Neptune in the process (although such a high-speed encounter would be far from optimum, if there is a spacecraft actually going, that is better than a better designed encounter that never happens).

The trouble is the actual velocity to be acquired during the sun encounter would probably be too uncertain beforehand to allow for targeting anything much, except the big OUT THERE.

That is an interesting read apart from the more well-known fictional works of one of the authors:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Benford

There are some infos on the Ares launched interstellar probe and other possible missions here

Does anyone have a good guess at how fast (in terms of kph) an Ares V rocket could propel a probe of roughly New Horizons mass (~5oo km) out of the solar system? How much additional acceleration could a Jupiter and/or Saturn gravity assist add to this speed?

Thanks in advance for any feedback you can provide.