If these three objectives are actually met over the coming weeks, it would
be fair to claim that Cosmos 1 is, potentially, to interstellar travel what
the Wrights’ Flyer was to modern aviation – and possibly even over a
comparable historical time frame

On this subject, the looming discovery of Earthlike planets is likely to
have an inspirational effect – there is nothing like a concrete destination,
however hard to reach, to focus the dreams of explorers…

June’s “Astronomy Now” carries an article by Professor Webster Cash ,of
Colorado University, who proposes a giant “pinhole camera” -the New Worlds
Imager – to seek out and characterise such Earthlike planets. A large
sunshade with a “pinhole” would screen out the glaring starlight and allow a
well-placed 1 metre telescope to see and examine its planets – the whole
assembly to be placed into a Lagrange orbit.

The engineering problems of transfer, deployment, and control of the
sunshade bear an uncanny resemblance to the techniques required for Cosmos
1.

I have proposed to Professor Cash and TPS that a collaboration on a Cosmos
2- or 3 – built around this idea would be fruitful and would demonstrate
dramatically a powerful application for solar sailing in a reasonable
period of time.

We shall see what the future brings, but I am quietly hopeful that at least
the idea will be seriously considered.!