Questions tagged [light-sail]

questions about spacecraft propelled by the reflection of light, either from the Sun, or an artificial source.

Light sails are capable of producing thrust without loosing mass, but the resulting force is extremely small, requiring large areas of thin and light material in order to be feasible.

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How long would it take for a light sail to make it to Proxima Centauri and what speed would it get to?

The new discovery of a small planet keeping Proxima Centauri company prompted my imagination into overtime. There are four parts to this: If we were to deploy a small probe on a light sail how long would it take to get the distance to Proxima…
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Specific reflected energy of current materials for light sail

Projects like Breakthrough Starshot or LightSail investigate a concept of probe gaining momentum by reflecting laser beam by a light sail. Material used for such a sail has to be very thin to minimize mass and be able to reflect as much possible…
Irigi
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