[throwaway-away]

Check out the aragoscope [1]. It's not planned, but we would already have the technology as it doesn't rely on fragile and heavy lenses to be sent in orbit.

If you look at image 17 you can see that a simulated aragoscope that is in our technical reach could already resolve the Jupiter moons from almost 23 light years away. I hope as well that we will have something comparable while I am still around.

[1] https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/2014_phase_i...

[Levitating]

Wow, that would be absolutely amazing.

For reference, there are 103 known main sequence stars within 20 light years.[1]

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nearest_stars

[ck2]

the 100 meter "starshade" probably has much higher chance to be built/launched next decade

it will block overwhelming starlight physically so objects around them can be imaged by existing telescopes

rather simple/clever, some things you just cannot do digitally

* https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-026-02787-9

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdTsaf68wd8