Overview

• Cosimo Bambi’s iScience article describes a gram-scale probe with a microchip and light sail accelerated by Earth-based lasers to about one-third the speed of light.
• The mission aims to conduct in situ tests of general relativity and directly probe event horizons by reaching a black hole 20–25 light-years from Earth.
• Critical hurdles include inventing durable nanocraft technology that does not yet exist and building laser infrastructure currently pegged at roughly €1 trillion.
• The plan’s feasibility depends on discovering a suitably close black hole within the next decade using emerging astrometric surveys and detection methods.
• With travel estimated at 70 years and another 20 years for data return, the full mission would span 80 to 100 years and require sustained, multi-generational commitment.