Powered by laser light, this tiny sail lays the groundwork for future advances in lightsail technology and the potential for ...

Sailing has been a mainstay of human history for millennia, so it's no surprise that scientists would apply it to traveling ...

"Chemical rockets that we use today, even with the extra speed boost from flying by planets, or from swinging by the sun for ...

In high school he became obsessed with the idea of laser sails after reading the novel The Mote in God’s Eye written by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven in 1974, which describes a sail that uses ...

The idea of a lightsail comes from the fact that radiation pressure represents a mechanical pressure acting on a surface due ...

Caltech researchers develop a platform to characterize ultrathin membranes for lightsails, advancing the quest for ...

The idea of traveling through interstellar space using spacecraft propelled by ultrathin sails may sound like the stuff of sci-fi novels. But in fact, a program started in 2016 by Stephen Hawking and ...

Tiny spaceships could be accelerated by lasers so that they reach the nearest star in 20 years. That's the theory. Now it's ...

Laser Model is a scale version of the famous “one design” Laser, the most popular “real boat” sailing class in the world. The R/C Laser, however, does not require a trailer, life jackets ...

Scientists are developing miniature lightsails that could travel at unprecedented speeds, potentially enabling interstellar travel.