Interstellar "iPhone" fleet!

[Pyrian]

Sound like a joke? These guys sound dead serious to me:

http://www.breakthroughinitiatives.org/News/4

The idea is to make tiny laser-sail driven interstellar vehicles. Loft a whole bunch into space, unfold them, then blast them up to speed (0.2c!?) with an array of ground-based lasers. Send them to Alpha Centauri and have them beam back data with an onboard laser.

 

[DefunctTheory]

Kinda threw me when you called it an iPhone fleet, particularly when the only mention of an iPhone is during a cost comparison.

Besides that, it's a neat idea. Curious as to whether this is an outcrop of the Planetary Societies solar sail project, or a competing effort. Looks like a competing effort.

 

[Xeorm]

Don't see the point in throwing the iphone reference in there. Seems like a doable idea on paper. I'd wonder how the little thing is going to reliably survive though. Seems a bit delicate.

 

[Pyrian]

Hmm? It's a "gram scale" device with processing, camera(s), telecommunications, and a few other doodads. It's basically a smartphone on a sail, and is heavily dependent on recently developed (or soon to come) smartphone technology.

The basic notion to enhance survivability is simply to send a whole lot of them.