Lightsail space tech gets tailwind from Caltech breakthrough

Centuries after Western explorers used sail power to discover a world
hitherto unknown to them -- although well known to people who already
lived there -- science fiction writers and engineers have wondered if
space exploration might be similarly powered by lightsails.

The idea of using light from a nearby star or remote laser to propel a spacecraft is already being driven forward by NASA research. The space
agency last year successfully extended into orbit an 80 m2 sail
designed to catch emissions from the Sun and convert them into
propulsion for space exploration.

Now a team of researchers based at the California Institute of
Technology are testing a platform for measuring the performance of a
group of ultra-thin membranes required to develop the solar sail
technology to further mobilize miniature probes capable of
interstellar travel.

The team have been able to measure the tiny forces exerted on a small
piece of membrane, as well has the effect of shining laser light on it
at an oblique angle.

The idea of a lightsail comes from the fact that radiation pressure
represents a mechanical pressure acting on a surface due to the
exchange of momentum between it and an electromagnetic field. Since
Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell showed that light has momentum,
it's possible it could be used to drive forward an object in this way.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/03/light_sails_tech_paper/

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