http://teodesian.net//posts/dbac31b1-13f3-11ec-bdd7-bde885e560c4?format=xml teodesian.net : /posts/dbac31b1-13f3-11ec-bdd7-bde885e560c4 en 2026-04-13T15:48:22 2026-04-13T15:48:22 /favicon.ico http://teodesian.net 32 32 teodesian.net favicon http://teodesian.net/posts/dbac31b1-13f3-11ec-bdd7-bde885e560c4 But as Maccone told the crowd at Stanford, we do much better still if we set up a bridge with not one but two FOCAL missions. Put one at the gravitational lens of the Sun, the other at the lens of the other star. At this point, things get wild. The minimum transmitted power drops to less than 10-4 watts. You’re reading that right — one-tenth of a milliwatt is enough to create error-free communications between the Sun and Alpha Centauri through two FOCAL antennas. Maccone’s paper assumes two 12-meter FOCAL antennas. StarShot envisions using its somewhat smaller sail as the antenna, a goal given impetus by these numbers. Of course, with a latency of a year, it ain't great but it sure as hell beats nothing, which is what you'd get without it.]]> doge http://teodesian.net/posts/dbac31b1-13f3-11ec-bdd7-bde885e560c4 2017-05-15T20:52:57 http://teodesian.net/posts/1494881577 But as Maccone told the crowd at Stanford, we do much better still if we set up a bridge with not one but two FOCAL missions. Put one at the gravitational lens of the Sun, the other at the lens of the other star. At this point, things get wild. The minimum transmitted power drops to less than 10-4 watts. You’re reading that right — one-tenth of a milliwatt is enough to create error-free communications between the Sun and Alpha Centauri through two FOCAL antennas. Maccone’s paper assumes two 12-meter FOCAL antennas. StarShot envisions using its somewhat smaller sail as the antenna, a goal given impetus by these numbers. Of course, with a latency of a year, it ain't great but it sure as hell beats nothing, which is what you'd get without it.]]> doge http://teodesian.net/posts/1494881577 2017-05-15T20:52:57