Would a dongle be that bad?
Back in the Walkman days there was a dongle that acted as a remote control. It made it very easy to skip songs, change volume, etc.
Another improvement to this functionality would be a likely movement away from the current situation with non-standard signalling sent across the analogue connection. Right now you can get headphones with integrated remotes to pause/resume and control the volume, but the signals are not shared between android/iphone let alone desktop operating systems.
The jagged edges on straight lines is interesting, it looks to me like this could get closer to the input image with a little bit of intelligent anti-aliasing.
Would a slightly conical mirror with its apex pointed towards the laser be self-stabilizing in tilt? Kind of like an aircraft with dihedral wings [1] is self-stabilizing in roll - imagine the laser illumination as an analog of the aero lift vector on the wings. If it tilts wrt the laser, the asymmetric illuminated area should counter the tilt.
> Spheres would cause a major issue - the laser would need to strike the centre of the circular visible surface.
> Otherwise you'd end up with the light bouncing of at angles other than pi, which would direct the probe to the side.
No, because these lasers won't be focused to a point smaller than the size of the satellite. I'm not sure what the waist will be, but presumably it's much larger than the mirror.
The real reason these are sails is because they maximize the momentum transfer per unit mass. But unlike sails on boats, this force can't be transmitted to a displaced payload using tethers/struts, so the payload must be dispersed and integrated within the sail itself.
Exhausting - it can be, you wake up in the dream and eventually get tired and fall asleep again (I once fell asleep in a puddle, in which I proceeded to drown).
