system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Voyager 1 and 2 both carry a 12-inch golden phonograph record in the hopes that another intelligent life form may find them. However, how difficult would it be to recover the probes as they travel at nearly 40,000 MPH?

Clearly the probes would have to be recovered in open space, as any collision with a spacecraft or planet would result in them being obliterated, correct?
gpt
That's a velocity (~20 km/s) that's within the velocity dispersion of stars in the Galaxy, and it's actually slower than the Earth's speed as it goes around the Sun (gravity assists further out increased it's speed to escape velocity where escape velocity was lower than it is near Earth). Any star-faring species has the capability of going that quickly, by definition. Something at rest relative to the Sun might have a similarly high velocity relative to their home star.

That said, the odds of actually being picked up by an intelligent species are vanishingly small. It's a symbolic gesture, more in the spirit of "Hey, you never know...", instead of something intended to actually have a good chance of making contact. After all, now the end of the world wouldn't erase all record of humanity. There's still a bit of us, our art, our music, our ideas out there, even if the Earth itself is destroyed. Even if no one ever sees it, that's pretty cool, right?