[Interview+] Punching NanoHoles in Light Sails Can Bring Us Closer to Alpha Centauri
Launching Breakthrough Starshot light sail probes to Alpha Centauri requires a lot of new tech, including the actual light sails. How do you make the optimal material to maximize the size while minimizing mass? Finding out in this interview.
🟣 Guest: Lucas Norder https://www.tudelft.nl/en/staff/l.norder/
Comments (8)
Very interesting. Let’s build a reeeaaaallyyyyyyyyy large one and put people on it
Very cool interview. Using this within our solar system, can we use planets to turn it around and then as it is coming back toward use lasers to slow it down? This can get our bandwidth receiver much faster. Then send it off again - cycle it for multi missions.
Very interesting interview, would love to hear about the present developments on lasers to potentially power the light sail.
Relativistic speeds evoke relativistic masses. How soon/ at what speed will 1 gram become 1 megagram?
Thank you so much for bringing us another excellent interview. I am always amazed at how clever these young people like Lucas really are. Some of this new technology is just mind boggling.
Since the Laserpointer the Hobby astronomers sent out to the ISS Spread out to a Kilometer, i wonder what Laserbeam would stay focused for... Deep space? Cheers, love your space journalism!
The idea of an almost perfectly reflective material is intriguing but I wonder how such a thin film could transfer the light pressure to the centre payload without crumpling? Could it have applications in tuned light sensors for telescopes? Note that if the material isn't sufficiently reflective, then the intense laser light would disintegrate it by Coulomb explosion rather than melting.
It’s so wonderful to hear someone say (in effect): “Enough theory, let’s build something physical and figure out how to make it work!” Excellent interview. Excellent science. Excellent work. Thank you!