Progress to Ultralight 16 Square Meter Nanocrystal Solar Sails for Breakthrough Starshot | NextBigFuture.com

Breakthrough Starship wants to use a 100 Gigawatt laser array to push an ultralight 4 meter X 4 meter nanocrystal solar sail. StarChip is the name used by Breakthrough Initiatives for a very small, centimeter-sized, gram-scale, interstellar spacecraft envisioned for the Breakthrough Starshot program. The light sail is envisioned to be no larger than 4 by 4 meters (13 by 13 feet). The material would have to be very thin and be able to reflect the laser beam while absorbing only a small fraction of the incident energy, or it will vaporize the sail. The light sail may also double The post Progress to Ultralight 16 Square Meter Nanocrystal Solar Sails for Breakthrough Starshot first appeared on NextBigFuture.com.