The Register on MSN3d
Lightsail space tech gets tailwind from Caltech breakthrough
The idea of a lightsail comes from the fact that radiation pressure represents a mechanical pressure acting on a surface due ...
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 ...
Interesting Engineering on MSN8d
Lightsail propulsion could enable interstellar travel at speeds never before imagined
To begin their research, the team built a small, tethered lightsail within a larger membrane. They then shined a visible ...
EurekAlert!8d
A Tethered Miniature Lightsail to Measure the Force Exerted By a Laser Beam (IMAGE)
The ultimate goal of the lightsail project is to drive a freely accelerating lightsail that is 10 square meters in area and 100 nm or less in thickness. In this first experimental step, the Caltech ...
AZoOptics on MSN5d
New Platform for Lightsail Membrane Characterization
Caltech researchers develop a platform to characterize ultrathin membranes for lightsails, advancing the quest for ...
Caltech Launches Lightsail Experiments for Star Travel
"The lightsail will travel faster than any previous spacecraft ... Adrien Merkt is also an author of the paper who participated in the project as a graduate student at ETH Zürich. The work was ...