this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2025
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That's a pretty good idea, especially when you consider another problem that needs to be solved by any fast-moving spacecraft: dust.
If a spacecraft hurtling through interstellar space at .3c encounters even a tiny grain of dust, the energy released by the collision is going to be enormous β more than enough to destroy the ship entirely. So far, the best strategy anyone has come up with to mitigate this risk is to just... send a shitload of probes all at once. Basically shotgun blast tiny craft at the sky in hopes that at least one of them makes it to the final destination unscathed.
I imagine it wouldn't be too hard to modify this strategy and stagger the launch times somewhat to create more of a 'caravan' of probes that could also double as a signal relay.
I thought that was the whole point of starshot (and similar). Sending multiple little crafts to act as relays and backups. Also because we can't slow down at the destination. So we'd have multiple fly-bys to get more data.
Wouldn't the trajectory from here to a single blackhole be so tight β like < 1 degree of the night sky β that if any probe were to vapourize at 10% the speed of light, the dust debris would likely destroy any craft that follows behind it, even if it were months behind?