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Yeah, you basically need to launch a new one for every target you want to image.
by skykooler 2y ago
Yeah, you basically need to launch a new one for every target you want to image.
- Tomte 2y agoProbably even many, because it‘s energetically impractical to stop at the focal point.
- skykooler 2y agoThe neat thing about a how an Einstein ring works is that you don't need to stop, because rather than there being a focal point, there is a focal line, moving directly outward from the Sun. This means a probe could spend potentially decades imaging the same target on its outward path, if it had sufficient power.
- Voultapher 2y agoI'd think to make it practical you'd have to have kind of (semi-) automatic space based assembly infrastructure that builds them and launches them. Launching these probes individually seems like it would be impractical. Building that infrastructure wouldn't be easy at all and I don't see that happening in the next 50 years.