First steps taken toward developing interstellar lightsails

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Caltech’s Lightsail Experiment Brings Interstellar Travel Closer to Reality

Powered by laser light, this tiny sail lays the groundwork for future advances in lightsail technology and the potential for interstellar propulsion.

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Lightsails could reach distant star systems

A team of scientists has made the first experimental measurements of laser-induced motions of miniature lightsails in the lab.

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Ultrathin interstellar lightsails a step closer, opening door to send probes to nearest star systems

Ultrathin lightsails using lasers to propel probes to the nearest star systems at high speeds are a step closer. Astronomical illustration of future lightsail spacecraft studying the exoplanets in the Centauri system. Credit: Photon Illustration / Stocktrek Images / Getty Images Plus. The idea of lightsails is something out of science fiction. As early as the 1950s and ‘60s, science fiction writers John Campbell, Arthur C. Clarke and others were…

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First steps taken toward developing interstellar lightsails

The idea of traveling through interstellar space using spacecraft propelled by ultrathin sails may sound like the stuff of sci-fi novels. But in fact, a program started in 2016 by Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner, known as the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative, has been exploring the idea. The concept is to use lasers to propel miniature space probes attached to "lightsails" to reach ultrafast speeds and eventually our nearest star system, Alpha C…

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The Pressure to Explore: Caltech Researchers Take First Experimental Steps Toward Lightsails that Could Reach Distant Star Systems

The Atwater group has made the first experimental measurements of laser-induced motions of miniature lightsails in the lab.

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Caltech scientists have developed a platform to characterize ultrafine membranes that can be used to manufacture sails capable of moving spacecraft in intertestular space.