The new challenge for 'Breakthrough Starshot,' which sends microspacecraft to stars more than 40 trillion kilometers away in just 20 years, lies in 'sails thinner than paper.'


by Breakthrough Initiatives

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Breakthrough Starshot' is a project to send an ultra-small spacecraft to the nearest star system ' Alpha Centauri ', which is about 4.3 light-years (about 40 trillion km) from the solar system. Although this project started in 2016 but has not yet been realized, it was reported that the concept of 'new sail' was completed.

How to Design a Sail that Won't Tear or Melt on an Interstellar Voyage --Penn Engineering Blog
https://blog.seas.upenn.edu/how-to-design-a-sail-that-wont-tear-or-melt-on-an-interstellar-voyage/

EarthSky | New solar sail may travel to Alpha Centauri
https://earthsky.org/space/alpha-centauri-travel-time/

Watch the video below to see what Breakthrough Starshot is like. Simply put, a sail of about 3 m is attached to a spacecraft with a size of several mm and a weight of several g, and the sail is continuously irradiated with a laser beam to accelerate the spacecraft and reach Alpha Kentauri. ..

Breakthrough Starshot Animation (Full)-YouTube


Laser irradiation accelerates the spacecraft to 20% of the speed of light, and it takes only 20 years to reach what would take tens of thousands of years with a normal rocket. Mark Zuckerberg and investor Yuri Milner have made large donations to the project, launched by physicist Stephen Hawking and others, and are steadily preparing for its realization. increase.

However, there are various challenges to this project. One is that it is difficult to keep the laser irradiation on the sail. It is extremely difficult to continue to irradiate a sail with a total amount of 1 GW on a sail of only 3 m, and it is thought that the atmosphere covering the earth may cause an error and significantly reduce the acceleration force.

In this regard, the idea of 'correcting the laser using artificial satellites' was proposed in 2021. The idea is to measure the error caused by the atmosphere by firing a laser from an artificial satellite toward the ground, and then perform full-scale irradiation. There are plans to test at the laboratory level to see if the idea comes true.

What are the technical challenges of the 'Breakthrough Starshot' project, which sends a spacecraft to Alpha Centauri at 20% of the speed of light? --GIGAZINE



Another challenge is 'we need a sail that can withstand high-power laser irradiation.' Even if the laser irradiation is successful, if the sail that receives it melts or tears, acceleration power cannot be obtained. Therefore, the development of a highly durable sail that can withstand laser irradiation was underway.

And this time, Igor Balgatan of the University of Pennsylvania and others announced that the concept of a new shape of sail has been completed. The concept design is as follows. It is made of aluminum oxide and molybdenum disulfide, and is one thousandth as thin as a piece of paper.


by Breakthrough Initiatives

Bargatan et al. 'The feature is that thin sails are very wavy. Therefore, as a result of complicated calculations on what kind of structure the sail we are looking for, a curved structure rather than a flat shape. It's finished! '

Furthermore, in order to prevent the sail from being heated and melted by laser irradiation, it is said that it has a structure with holes at regular intervals. As a result, the heat radiation of the sail is optimally performed, and the laser irradiation can be maximized.

'This design is based on materials available at this time,' said Deep Jariwara, who was involved in the research. 'Our future plans are to build a small physical object based on this design and test it with a high-power laser. That's it. '

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