That's one approach to use the sun as a gravitational lens for looking at exoplanets. There's another approach that instead of one big telescope sends a series

That's one approach to use the sun as a gravitational lens for looking at exoplanets. There's another approach that instead of one big telescope sends a series of much smaller telescopes, small enough that light sails would be effective for getting them to where they need to go. Here's a PBS Space Time episode [1] that talks about this general topic, and then about the series of smaller telescopes approach. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d0EGIt1SPc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d0EGIt1SPc