Researchers have created the highest aspect ratio nanophotonic structure ever made — a laser-driven lightsail that’s over 30,000× larger than previous versions and can now be manufactured in just one day (down from an estimated 15 years). This advancement opens the door to entirely new classes of lightweight, high-power optical materials, and raises fundamental questions about the limits of accelerating mass with light.
The work is now featured by APS Physics, the magazine of the American Physical Society — the world’s leading physics society: https://physics.aps.org/articles/v18/77
https://physics.aps.org/articles/v18/77
2 Comments
That sounds all very impressive materials science work.
Can anyone explain how a 1 gram payload, or even an array of these tiny payloads would be able to send a signal back to earth?
Is there a company I can put money into for this? This is amazing.