12-25-2016, 12:07 AM
This is purely a beamsail concept. The outermost 1000km ring of the sail acts as a mirror to reflect the beam onto the 320km rendezvous stage; this stage slows down to examine the system in detail and at leisure.
The rendezvous stage splits further to reflect the beam onto the return stage, which eventually comes home (and is decelerated finally by the lasers directly).
The rendezvous stage splits further to reflect the beam onto the return stage, which eventually comes home (and is decelerated finally by the lasers directly).