Why can't the star probes see close up?

The notion of the star probes was introduced very early on in Rome's Revolution. These microscopic space ships have a one pixel collector tube and plate. They use a miniature PPT tunnel to jump there and back and transmit their findings to OMCOM (and later MINIMCOM) to collate.



As mentioned in an earlier post, these star probes position themselves in a concave arrangement to form a lens-less camera suitable for visualizing objects at extreme distances. However, time and again it is noted that they are not very well suited for examining close objects or small objects. Why is that?

The answer lies in the collection tubes. They are designed to collect a single photon, recorded its wavelength and return that data. They can only focus on objects that are emitting photons. They cannot zoom in on say an asteroid and arrange themselves with sufficient precision to yield good focus.

We saw this when OMCOM first trotted them out. They went out to examine a space tug that was only about one light hour away and the image was very fuzzy. MINIMCOM tried to use them to navigate their way through the inner Oort Cloud of Tau Ceti and they were barely adequate. He also tried to use them to visualize Captain Keller's sarcophagus but it turns out that MIDAR was much better suited.

In summary, the star probes have their place but looking at small objects is not their strong point.