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Inside Starshot, the audacious plan to shoot tiny ships to Alpha Centauri

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  1. asoftbird
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    So many pictures in that article that aren't adding anything. A stack of oscilloscopes and multimeters? Cool. Ooh, mirrors! Look, I'm holding a soldering helper stand with some wires clipped on....

    So many pictures in that article that aren't adding anything. A stack of oscilloscopes and multimeters? Cool. Ooh, mirrors! Look, I'm holding a soldering helper stand with some wires clipped on.

    Looks interesting but adds nothing.

    Similarly, I like how at the beginning of the article, they state:

    Many of the schemes put forward are too vague, and they almost always have too many technological gaps to fill.

    Later on, there's this:

    As we walk through the labs, he is quick to acknowledge that Starshot still faces a lot of challenges. There is, for example, no laser yet powerful enough to do this kind of blasting. There are no light sails that could take such a beam without being obliterated. There are no less-than-gram-size spacecraft to make the journey, and questions about laser supply and laser location remain.

    So it's a different project, but still none of the requirements for it to work are met. It's just an idea at this point, like the other things mentioned before.

    1 vote