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Pentagonal photonic crystal mirrors: scalable lightsails with enhanced acceleration via neural topology optimization

Summary by Nature
The Starshot Breakthrough Initiative aims to send gram-scale microchip probes to Alpha Centauri within 20 years, propelled by laser-driven lightsails at a fifth of light speed. This mission demands innovative lightsail materials with meter-scale dimensions, nanoscale thickness, and billions of nanoscale holes for enhanced reflectivity and reduced mass. Unlike the microchip payload, lightsail fabrication requires breakthroughs in optics, material…

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Pentagonal photonic crystal mirrors: scalable lightsails with enhanced acceleration via neural topology optimization

The Starshot Breakthrough Initiative aims to send gram-scale microchip probes to Alpha Centauri within 20 years, propelled by laser-driven lightsails at a fifth of light speed. This mission demands innovative lightsail materials with meter-scale dimensions, nanoscale thickness, and billions of nanoscale holes for enhanced reflectivity and reduced mass. Unlike the microchip payload, lightsail fabrication requires breakthroughs in optics, material…

·United Kingdom
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BIOENGINEER.ORGBIOENGINEER.ORG

New Breakthrough in Lightsail Design and Fabrication Paves the Way for

Since its launch, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has embarked on an extraordinary journey, covering over 15 billion miles into the vast expanse of deep space. This astounding distance, however, represents less than one percent of the journey to Alpha Centauri, the closest star system to our sun. As humanity aspires to explore beyond our solar system, the challenge of achieving faster-than-ever space travel becomes increasingly urgent. Innovative pr…

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abovethenormnews.comabovethenormnews.com

Scientists Create Lightsail Technology for Interstellar Flight

A team of scientists has developed an ultra-thin material that will allow humanity to reach another star system within our lifetime. Researchers from Delft University of Technology and Brown University have successfully created and manufactured a new type of lightsail using an unexpected pentagonal pattern that dramatically outperforms all previous designs. Their research, published yesterday […] The post Scientists Create Lightsail Technology f…

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abovethenormnews.com broke the news in on Wednesday, March 26, 2025.
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