On a related topic, anyone else here heard of the
Breakthrough Starshoot project? It was founded in 2016 by Stephen Hawking, Mark Zuckerberg, and Yuri Milner.
The goal of the project is similar to this one, albeit using spaceships that weigh just a few grams, literally. With a much more modest 100GW laser, and a small solar sail of just 5 square meters, they plan to launch these probes to speeds of 15-20% the speed of light in just 10 seconds at 10,000 g-force
