I am not ordinarily to be found on the "why are you spending money in space instead of feeding starving babies" side of the conversation, but as this short article sets forth, the technological obstacles to successfully launching several thousand ultralight probes via laser array to the next star are pretty daunting. Not addressed in this account is the first question that occurred to me: supposing you can get your stripped-down iPhones to Alpha Centauri at .2c, and even assuming that some of them detect, resolve and photograph en passant a rocky world that's the spitting image of Altair IV, how the hell does our little electronic emissary phone home? What kind of power supply can be incorporated that (A) does not push the weight into double-digit grams and (B) is nevertheless studly enough to push a signal across 4.3 light years? Recall that the New Horizons probe, which is about the size of a car, is equipped with a transmitter that consumes about as much power as the average night light.

Mind you, if a consortium of moguls wants to tackle the undertaking on their own dimes, I think it would be pretty cool to have our species artifacts whizzing past Alpha Centauri in—well, not in my lifetime, but conceivably in the lifetimes of some of our members' wee bairn. And after all, whether or not we ever get handsome 8x10 color glossies back from the next stellar system, it's a pretty benign use for billionaires' swag compared to some of the things that lot get up to.

cordially starstruck,