(August 25, 2016 at 11:14 pm)Rhythm Wrote: Even 1 au isn't a workable margin or error for a low impulse engine which would be traveling at or near it's max speed when it arrived. We'd be stuck with the drone rain you described (and they;d have all the same problems getting closer as the main craft). A total downer (for me, ofc, for me, lol).
Yeah, but a low impulse engine can work continuously for years as the spacecraft approach Proxima Centauri, while the same 1 arc second of error tolerance in the star tracker translates to an ever diminishing fraction of 1 AU.