[Interview] Swarms of Cheap Spacecraft for Solar System Exploration

Solar sails aren't just a tool to send tiny spacecraft to Alpha Centauri. They can also be used to optimise exploration of the Solar System. How can we do that? Figuring it out with Alexander Alvara. 📜 BLISS: Interplanetary Exploration with Swarms of Low-Cost Spacecraft https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.11226 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1198440-universe-today-book-club 00:00 Intro 01:08 Thousands of tiny solar sails 03:58 Deployment plan 10:28 Timeframe 11:58 Communication with Earth 15:15 How far can you go 17:58 Long-term potential of solar sails 26:37 Current obsessions 29:10 Final thoughts and more interviews 📺 VIDEO VERSION https://youtu.be/5p6Ur7V4ZVM 📰 EMAIL NEWSLETTER Read by 60,000 people every Friday. Written by Fraser. No ads. Subscribe. It's FREE: https://universetoday.com/newsletter 🎧 PODCASTS Universe Today: https://universetoday.fireside.fm/ Astronomy Cast: http://www.astronomycast.com/ 🤳 OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA Twitter: https://twitter.com/fcain Twitter: https://twitter.com/universetoday Facebook: https://facebook.com/universetoday Instagram: https://instagram.com/universetoday 📩 CONTACT FRASER frasercain@gmail.com ⚖️ LICENSE Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)