[ExI] Breakthrough Starshot - To The Stars!

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

On Sat, Apr 16, 2016 at 12:08 PM, Adrian Tymes <atymes at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> As mentioned in another post last night, it turns out they do have
> electronics that can stand up to the acceleration - but the sail/optical
> array is their big worry.  If the acceleration is at all uneven (which it
> always is in, in human observation, for any accelerating force other than
> gravity), then parts would be accelerated at slightly different rates than
> adjacent parts, and the delta in Gs - which can be quite large if there is
> a large overall acceleration - would tear them apart.
>

### It is implausible that this could be a showstopper. Mirrors can be made
uniform to a very very small level of variation. The intensity fluctuations
within a large laser beam fired with adaptive optics are small.
Nano-actuators on the spacecraft could adjust reflectance of parts of the
mirror in microseconds to correct fluctuations. Graphene-reinforced
monocrystalline aluminum, or whatever they end up using on the mirror, is
tough stuff even at monolayer thicknesses.

Anyway, the 100 mil is there to explore such niggling details.

Rafał
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