Haven’t read the article yet, but I didn’t detect any mention of stopping or slowing down when they get there. I hope the little drones have high speed imaging systems as they whisk by.
Also curious where they’re going to put the big laser. If on Earth, it’s going to be awfully hard to keep it pointed at Alpha Centauri as the Earth rotates once a day and orbits the sun. Seems it would need to be out in space somewhere relatively stable, and then where do you plug it in?
You can probably build the laser at an Earth L5 point. From there it should be easy to keep it pointed correctly, and it would be far enough away to power it with a fairly hefty reactor, without requiring all kinds of shielding. Alternately, by going a bit farther out, it could be stationed at the appropriate pole of a large asteroid, which might make it easier to build, since it could use the asteroid as the “framework”. Such a location could also provide the benefit of a little gravity, making maintenance a bit easier.
“Also curious where they’re going to put the big laser. If on Earth, it’s going to be awfully hard to keep it pointed at Alpha Centauri as the Earth rotates once a day and orbits the sun. Seems it would need to be out in space somewhere relatively stable, and then where do you plug it in?”
And you’d have to promise that you won’t aim it at an Earth city, nope not me!