[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
[email protected]

⚖️ LICENSE
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)