Laser Sail, Maser Sail

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Technology > Technology Type or Material > Drytech/Hylotech
Technology > Technology Levels > High Tech / Hitech
Technology > Application > Transportation > Interstellar Transport

Image from Steve Bowers

Laser Sails

Laser sails use thin multi-square-kilometer sails (often several hundreds of kilometres in diameter) made of ultra-light reflective material. These are propelled by visible-light lasers with up to thousands of terawatts of power, allowing a reasonable rate of acceleration with no on-board reaction mass. Generally used for unmanned craft.

Maser Sails

Image from Steve Bowers
The Starwisp, the first successful interstellar probe to any destination, reached Alpha Centauri in 202 AT

Maser sails use microwave laser beams, or masers, for propulsion, and consist of a thin mesh capable of interacting with the longer wavelength of these beams. Many early interstellar probes used maser sails, sometimes including an extra reflective element to allow deceleration. Even in the current era lightweight maser-sail probes are sometimes used for exploration purposes.

Heavier craft often use magnetic drive sails to interact with a smart particle beam, which carries considerably more momentum.

See also Laser Launching systems

HELL (High Energy Laser Launch)
Laser
Laser Weapons
Solar and Microwave Passive Propulsion
Solar Moth
Solar Surfing - Text by James Ramsey
Solar surfing, also known as sun diving or sun skipping, is a form of vec entertainment in which specially designed ships are placed in a orbit such that they will fly through the outer edges of a star and even skip across its surface. Highly dangerous sport requiring high speeds and extremely accurate trajectories. May also refer to riding solar flares and other solar eruptions.
Solar Wind - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Stream of rapidly moving electrically charged particles - atoms and ions - that escape from the solar corona and blow outwards. Also called Stellar Wind.
Tragedy of the G995, The

Appears in Topics

Drytech/Hylotech

High Tech / Hitech

Interstellar Transport

Development Notes

Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Additional material by Steve Bowers
Initially published on 03 December 2001.

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