2025/02/25 by Lin, Jadon Y., de Sterke, C. Martijn, Ilic, Ognjen +1 · 2 citations
#Applied Physics (physics.app-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) #Optics (physics.optics)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2502.17828
Lightsails are a highly promising spacecraft concept that has attracted interest in recent years due to its potential to travel at near-relativistic speeds. Such speeds, which current conventional crafts cannot reach, offer tantalizing opportunities to probe nearby stellar systems within a human lifetime. Recent advancements in photonics and metamaterials have created novel solutions to challenges in propulsion and stability facing lightsail missions. This review introduces the physical principles underpinning lightsail spacecrafts and discusses how photonics coupled with inverse design substantially enhance lightsail performance compared to plain reflectors. These developments pave the way through a previously inaccessible frontier of space exploration.