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sfink 11 hours ago

No.

Let's say our initial boost got it up to 0.1c. After 20 years, it's gone 2 light years. If we make our space-based laser aperture really big, let's say 1km, then the light reaching our probe is something like a 25000km wide radius. That's not going to power anything.

If you slow down the initial 0.1c, then pretty quickly you're better off not sending it out at all and getting a bigger boost from your giant space laser being close for the initial acceleration.

The diffraction limit is annoying.