It seems more likely to me that at some point in the not too distant future we might be able to make an accurate indirect picture by combining position and velocity data of stars, gas and dust from a future successor of the GAIA satellite and other surveys.
People have tried this, but the Milky Way is immense and the sensitivity/resolution of Gaia is limited (still amazing though!) and distant objects get obscured by gas and dust that is closer by. For example this paper from a few years ago has a this reconstruction:
It seems more likely to me that at some point in the not too distant future we might be able to make an accurate indirect picture by combining position and velocity data of stars, gas and dust from a future successor of the GAIA satellite and other surveys.
People have tried this, but the Milky Way is immense and the sensitivity/resolution of Gaia is limited (still amazing though!) and distant objects get obscured by gas and dust that is closer by. For example this paper from a few years ago has a this reconstruction: