Alain Fournier wrote:
On May/22/2016 at 4:48 PM, Robert Clark wrote :

Suppose we made the probes at the virus or bacteria scale then used
self-assembly to form a macroscale spacecraft say size of Mars
Pathfinder. Then we might only need a ground laser of currently existing
size, say a few hundred kilowatts, to send multiple nanoscale components
to relativistic speeds.

Know of references for doing self-assembly with components at the
nanoscale?


As others have mentioned, this kind of self-assembly is rather far-out
in the sci-fi zone. But even if you did have such self assembly,
focusing your laser on something far away that is of nanometric size
is yet another challenge far-out in the sci-fi zone.


Alain Fournier

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Those guys have too much money.

Imagine looking at a planet which is 1400 light years away,
a place where any member of the human race can never be,
no matter how long he has to do it.

DZ