"The lightsail will travel faster than any previous spacecraft, with potential to eventually open interstellar distances to ...

But building and testing these sails is a complex undertaking. “The lightsail will travel faster than any previous spacecraft ...

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

The idea of a lightsail comes from the fact that radiation pressure represents a mechanical pressure acting on a surface due ...

Caltech scientists are developing laser-driven lightsails that could push spacecraft beyond our solar system. Their research ...

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 ...

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 ...

A microscope image of the Caltech team's "miniature trampoline," a tiny lightsail tethered at the corners for direct radiation pressure measurement.

But a higher-energy version of this phenomenon could use a ground- or space-based laser beam to push a lightsail on a spacecraft in a more directed way. With the beam providing a source of ...