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Path: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: JAB <here@is.invalid> Newsgroups: sci.misc Subject: Lightsail space tech gets tailwind from Caltech breakthrough Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2025 12:15:42 -0600 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 30 Message-ID: <vnr14e$1d4ob$1@dont-email.me> Reply-To: JAB <here@is.invalid> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Injection-Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2025 19:15:43 +0100 (CET) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="a455ff0ae5939e24e0341acc976b184b"; logging-data="1479435"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+nun2LvEtLsTpNX2dlm4TV" User-Agent: ForteAgent/8.00.32.1272 Cancel-Lock: sha1:BzI3gz/qZwiXfJwrAUYqawL7G6A= Bytes: 2427 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/