Making Affordable Laser Pushed Sails With AI Optimization | NextBigFuture.com
There has been huge progress on laser pushed sails. Laser pushed sails appear to be a path to sending probes up to 20% of the speed of light when we can make 1 gram sails that are one to two meters on a side.
There is still work needed to make the sail area about one thousand times larger for interstellar missions.
Researchers are now progressing to hold down tests. They are making usable sails which will be useful for breakthrough missions inside the solar system. Probes could reach Mars in about 32 hours and Saturn in 3 weeks.
They can now test the probes in the lab with hold down tests to experiment with stability when they will be launched.
They are working on near term designs for the interplanetary missions.
They are using AI machine learning to optimize for reduced costs and have removed $1 milion of cost for each planned mission.
When the Breakthrough Starshot announced eight years ago in 2016, they had tiny amounts of the superthin sail material (350 nanometers by 350 nanometers). They can now make it 16,000 times larger (60 millimeters by 60 millimeters).
The materials used are dielectric and currently are silicon nitride.
Holes are made in the laser pushed sails which make them into mirrors at the desired wavelengths. The mirror effect needs to work across a range of wavelengths because of the doppler effect as the sails will speed up.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
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