In this episode we will explore the bleeding edge of satellite and satellite constellation miniaturization. These awe inspiring craft commonly known as Chipsats, Wafersats, Sprites, Monarchs, Kicksats, Starchips, or even just “Smart Dust” are facilitating the rapid miniaturization of space craft following an exponential trajectory stipulated by Moore's Law, no doubt enabling new incredible possibilities and discoveries just around the corner. We talk about the unique physics and associated challenges that these low-mass vehicles face in space, how incredible engineering is overcoming them, and how the Breakthrough Starshot project will tackle the very difficult problem of sending a spacecraft interstellar to Proxima b. Our guest today is Professor Zachary Manchester, who studied physics and aerospace engineering at Cornell University earning his BS and PHD respectively. Zac undertook his Postdoc at Harvard and became Assistant Professor at Stanford University, and later at Carnegie Mellon University where he now heads the Robotic Exploration Lab. He received critical acclaim for his Kickstarter.com crowdfunded Kicksat project - deploying an armada of chipsats in LEO and has published together with Mason Peck and Avi Loeb and is member of the Breakthrough Starshot Research team, who are working on an interstellar spacecraft mission to Proxima-b. CONTENT 00:02:36 Intro 00:05:51 Inspiring Moments | Working with Professor Mason Peck 00:06:47 What are Femtosats, Attosats, Zeptosats, Yoctosats, Chipsats? 00:11:29 Regulatory Constraints | Collision Risks 00:15:12 Cubesat & Chipsat costs 00:20:00 Most valuable uses cases and applications 00:25:50 Chipsat Communication 00:28:28 Length Scaling 00:32:16 Thermal Equilibration 00:34:12 Attitude Determination and Orbit Control 00:43:36 Bio-inspired Constellation Management 00:53:15 Limits of Miniaturization | Smart Dust 00:56:00 Breakthrough Initiative | Starshot 00:59:45 Starshot Payload 01:07:39 Is Earth going to look like a Death Star? 01:08:59 Nuclear Propulsion 01:15:00 Most advanced Breakthrough Propulsion 01:16:18 The Origins of the Chipsat Idea | Kickstarter Campaign 01:30:42 Next Research Projects 01:35:09 Hard Problems to solve 01:38:58 Science Fiction becomes Science Fact 01:40:20 Why space and why space now?