LightSail

How Could Laser-Driven Lightsails Remain Stable?

How can we send spacecraft to other star systems? One proposed by Breakthrough Foundation is the Starshot, which uses high-powered…

8 months ago

Sending a Spacecraft to Another Star Will Require a Million Lasers Working Together

New research from the Australia National University shows that millions of lasers are the way to propel Breakthrough Starshot on…

3 years ago

Want the Fastest Solar Sail? Drop it Into the Sun First

A new study from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy shows how a "Sun Diver," a light sail that dives…

4 years ago

What’s the Best Way to Communicate With an Interstellar Probe When it’s Light-Years Away From Earth?

A new study by an international team of scientists addressed a major challenge with interstellar missions: how to send and…

4 years ago

How Will we Receive Signals From Interstellar Probes, Like Starshot?

A new study takes a look at the challenges of sending and receiving data over interstellar distances using tight-beam lasers

4 years ago

One Step Closer to Interstellar Travel. A Successful Microgravity Test of a Graphene Light Sail

If we want to travel to the stars, we're going to have to be creative. The answer might be light…

4 years ago

LightSail 2 Mission is Going Strong and Sending Mission Info Home!

The Planetary Society recently launched its LightSail 2 technology demonstrator, which could prove to be an effective means of propulsion…

5 years ago

Weekly Space Hangout: Nov 21, 2018: Bruce Betts’ “Astronomy for Kids”

Hosts: Fraser Cain (universetoday.com / @fcain) Dr. Paul M. Sutter (pmsutter.com / @PaulMattSutter) Dr. Kimberly Cartier (KimberlyCartier.org / @AstroKimCartier )…

6 years ago

Breakthrough Starshot is Now Looking for the Companies to Build its Laser-Powered Solar Sails to Other Stars

Breakthrough Starshot, a project that hopes to send a small spacecraft to Proxima Centauri in our lifetimes, is now looking…

6 years ago

A Novel Concept For Braking Breakthrough Starshot

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute have come up with an interesting way to slow down Starshot's mission to Alpha…

8 years ago