Interstellar communication. VII. Benchmarking inscribed matter probes

Abstract

We have explored the optimal frequency of interstellar photon communications (arXiv:1711.05761) and benchmarked other particles as information carriers (arXiv:1711.07962) in previous papers of this series. We now compare the latency and bandwidth of sending probes with inscribed matter. Durability requirements such as shields against dust and radiation, as well as data duplication, add negligible weight overhead at velocities v<0.2 c. Probes may arrive in full, while most of a photon beam is lost to diffraction. Probes can be more energy efficient per bit, and can have higher bandwidth, compared to classical communication, unless a photon receiver is placed in a stellar gravitational lens. The probe's advantage dominates by order of magnitude for long distances (kpc) and low velocities (<0.1 c) at the cost of higher latency.