[ronnietherocket3]

wafer-thin spacecrafts

So you would get a computer to the destination, but nothing else.

faster than the speed of light

No, just no. The author should have run the article by someone with a degree in physics. This is not a proposal to get to the destination faster than the speed of light. Physics (at present) has stated this is impossible. In addition, one could not use light to propel something faster than light. Once the object has reached light speed, there would be no momentum transfer from light to the object.

As an example, on the eventual upper end, a full-scale (50-70 GW) DE-STAR 4

While not a stupid concept, DE-STAR is just a proposal. Also a 50GW laser is huge.

This means that while space travel takes 30 minutes, it could equal a decade here on Earth.

The proposal is to fly an object from Earth to Mars in 30 minutes. Whatever relativistic time scale that is in, it would take less than 9 months on Earth as that is the current amount of time.

[GingisK]

The proposal is to fly an object from Earth to Mars in 30 minutes.

The time of flight is estimated from our viewpoint. The time in the spaceship would be shorter.