"The lightsail will travel faster than any previous spacecraft, with potential to eventually open interstellar distances to ...

Lightsails operate by harnessing radiation pressure from a light source, such as the Sun or lasers, to propel a spacecraft.

"Chemical rockets that we use today, even with the extra speed boost from flying by planets, or from swinging by the sun for a boost, just don't have the ability to scale to useful interstellar speeds ...

Equipped with a massive sunshield, the platform would protect sensitive components from extreme heat while generating the gigawatts of power needed for beam propulsion. By focusing this energy ...

The energy for the electromagnetic ... the electrons more to the core of the beam. Ultimately, this could help missions powered by electric propulsion to fly farther and for longer, pushed by ...

Researchers have proposed a new propulsion method that could make ... [multiplied by] time — so to get a given amount of energy from a beam, you either need very high power or you need to ...

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

An exotic new approach could shrink kilometer-scale machines into table-top devices.

Propelled to a fifth the speed of light by a laser beam more powerful than a million ... under development at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California. Deployed in space, the device ...