The Enhanced Starshot Concept: Beyond Breakthrough Starshot, towards an Enhanced Framework for Interstellar Travel

Breakthrough Starshot is a project that envisions interstellar travel to the Alpha Centauri star system by accelerating Light sail interstellar probes named StarChip to 15−20% is a revolutionary idea. The concept of focusing a light beam from a phased array of ground-based lasers on the Light sails of these StarChips to accelerate them to 15−20% speed of light is unparalleled. However, this concept would still take between 20-30 years to complete the journey, and, moreover, traveling to more distant celestial bodies would still remain a constraint. This paper introduces an enhanced version of their concept, which can make interstellar travel more feasible. This new version is named the Enhanced Starshot Concept (ESC) and builds on the original idea by placing a constellation of laser-emission satellites in high Mars orbit and customizing the StarChip's design to have more Light sails. This customized StarChip is named Sailchip-X. The essence of this enhanced concept is to use space-based solar power to accumulate solar energy for these laser-emitting satellites so that the Light sail can have multiple boosts of acceleration, increasing its velocity cumulatively to 40−50% speed of light. The Enhanced Starshot Concept improves the original idea by allowing the Sailchip-X to travel at a significantly higher speed, making it more cost-effective and sustainable.