Re: Should be considered for a New Millennium mission
It would cost a lot more than that; with the biggest costs launch (of course - you'd need at least a Taurus & probably a small Delta 2 configuration) & the development & testing of the diagnostic equipment required to prove that the plasma sail is deploying correctly & generating thrust (in cf, a physical sail only needs a video camera & a radio antenna to demonstrate deployment & acceleration). That said: the problem with developing M2P2 is that much of the guts testing will probably have to be done in space - we don't happen to have vaccuum chambers kms across down here on Earth, for reasons unclear.
Robert