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Published October 2018 | public
Journal Article

Materials challenges for the Starshot Lightsail

Abstract

The Starshot Breakthrough Initiative established in 2016 sets an audacious goal of sending a spacecraft beyond our Solar System to a neighbouring star within the next half-century. Its vision for an ultralight spacecraft that can be accelerated by laser radiation pressure from an Earth-based source to ~20% of the speed of light demands the use of materials with extreme properties. Here we examine stringent criteria for the lightsail design and discuss fundamental materials challenges. We predict that major research advances in photonic design and materials science will enable us to define the pathways needed to realize laser-driven lightsails.

Additional Information

© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature. Received: 14 August 2017; Accepted: 29 March 2018; Published: 07 May 2018.

Errata

16 August 2018: In the version of this Perspective originally published, the titles of the references were missing; all versions have now been amended to include them. 12 October 2018: In the version of this Perspective originally published, Fig.1 was missing the following credit line from the caption: 'Background image from ESA/Hubble (A. Fujii).' This has now been corrected in the online versions of the Perspective.

Additional details

Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
October 23, 2023