We are looking at the possible use of relays on Icarus. The system we are examining right now is one in which Icarus itself drops off relays during the boost phase of the craft, so that the relays spread out over the years, forming a chain from the target star all the way back to Earth.

What you’re describing sounds very much like an Interplanetary Internet, perhaps using the Delay Tolerant Networking system created by Vint Cerf (who is now a consultant on Icarus, by the way). This ties into some interesting questions about what infrastructure is needed in the solar system in order to process interstellar comms, and whether Icarus should be pointing directly toward Earth or whether it should be pointing toward a space-based receiver.

Thanks for your comments.

That does leave the intriguing possibility of using the probe/s as a base-builder if it is sufficiently adaptable. At launch the software may not be sufficiently developed, so updates could be beamed thanks to the gravity lens. Adaptability will allow us to set the probe/s to new tasks as we analyse the data, though the lightspeed lag would be maddening.