Yeah, the solar lensing point is WAY the hell out there: since 1 AU is 8 light-minutes, so the 548 AU minimum works out to 73 light-hours away. When LIGHT takes half a week to make a one-way trip, you're in the deep space boondocks, folks.
I haven't read the paper yet, but this thing would have to have a fair amount of nuclear power, and comms would be a challenge as well. As the abstract mentions, though, while the project has a high degree of difficulty, there appear to be no complete technology showstoppers to actually doing this, so it's at least as doable (and considerably cheaper than) a von Braun-style centrifugal space station in Earth orbit.
It'll be interesting to see if the idea gets any traction...
I haven't read the paper yet, but this thing would have to have a fair amount of nuclear power, and comms would be a challenge as well. As the abstract mentions, though, while the project has a high degree of difficulty, there appear to be no complete technology showstoppers to actually doing this, so it's at least as doable (and considerably cheaper than) a von Braun-style centrifugal space station in Earth orbit.
It'll be interesting to see if the idea gets any traction...