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

"The lightsail will travel faster than any previous spacecraft ... The plan relies on high-powered lasers on Earth pushing delicate sail-driven probes in the cosmos like the wind does for ...

Caltech scientists are developing laser-driven lightsails that could push spacecraft beyond our solar system. Their research ...

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

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

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

Clarke and others were toying with the idea of “solar sails” for spacecraft propulsion. A program started in 2016 by theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking and scientist Yuri Milner is trying to bring ...

Electric propulsion is being increasingly used on space ... to as solar electric propulsion. But for missions farther from the sun, where the sunlight is fainter, nuclear power in the form of ...

China has announced plans to build a giant solar power space station, which will be lifted into orbit piece by piece using the nation's brand-new heavy lift rockets.

This is research that could help advance the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative's vision of laser-driven space travel. Lightsails are a more generic form of solar sail, in that they use radiation ...