Graphene light sail
A tiny sail made of the thinnest material known – one carbon-atom-thick graphene – has passed initial tests designed to show that it could be a viable material to make solar sails for spacecraft.
Light sails are one of the most promising existing space propulsion technologies that could enable us to reach other star systems within many decades.
Traditional spacecraft carry fuel to power their journeys and use complex orbital manoeuvres around other planets. But the weight of the fuel makes them difficult to launch and intricate flyby manoeuvres considerably lengthen the journey.
Solar sails need no fuel. Spacecraft equipped with them are thus much lighter and easier to launch.
Two spacecraft flown over the past decade have already demonstrated the technology, but they used sails made of polyimide and of mylar, a polyester film.
Graphene is much lighter. To test whether it could be used as a sail, researchers used a scrap just 3 millimetres across.
They dropped it from a 100-m tall tower in Bremen, Germany, to test whether it worked under vacuum and in microgravity.
Once the sail was in free-fall – effectively eliminating the effects of gravity – they shone a series of laser lights onto it, to see whether it would act as a solar sail.
Shining a 1 watt laser made the sail accelerate by up to 1 m/s2, similar to the acceleration of an office lift, but for solar sails the acceleration continues as long as sunlight keeps hitting the sails, taking spacecraft to higher and higher speeds.
“Making graphene is relatively simple and could be easily scaled up to kilometre-wide sails, though the deployment of a giant sail will be a serious challenge,” says Santiago Cartamil-Bueno, leader of the GrapheneSail team and director of SCALE Nanotech, a research start-up company operating in Estonia and Germany.
SCALE Nanotech is now looking for strategic partners to scale up the technology for an eventual test in space. The product development of the sail technology is currently accelerated through ESA’s Business Incubator Centre in Hessen and Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
Astrid Orr of ESA’s human spaceflight research programme oversees physical science experiments in weightlessness for human and robotic exploration.
She says: “This project is a wonderful example of scientific research that can be performed in weightlessness without leaving Earth.
“Dropping graphene and shooting it with lasers is fascinating. To think that this research could help scientists to send instruments through the solar system and, if one dares to dream, to distant star systems in years to come is the icing on the cake.”
The Latest Updates from Bing News & Google News
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Graphene light sail
- Graphene Batteries Appear, Results Questionable
If you listen to the zeitgeist, graphene is the next big thing. It’s the end of the oil industry, the solution to global warming, will feed and clothe millions, cure disease, is the foundation ...
- Graphene grows—physicists find a way to visualize it
Graphene is one of the strongest materials. On top of that, it is exceptionally good at conducting heat and electrical currents, making it one of the most special and versatile materials we know.
- Laser Etching Graphene Supercapacitors
The tech is nothing new, but did you know you can make your own graphene using your DVD burner? No seriously — all you need is a light-scribe compatible DVD burner and some graphite oxide.
- Graphene sensor is 1,000 times more sensitive to light, could enable ultra-low-light photography
The Singaporean graphene photodetector has a photoresponsivity of 8.61 A/W, up from previous graphene photodetectors which only manage 10 mA/W -- or an increase in sensitivity of around 860 times.
- Terahertz modulation of UV light by graphene nano-ribbon
Researchers have theoretically presented terahertz (THz) modulation of UV light by a graphene nano-ribbon from computational simulation and proposed the application to a terahertz radiation device.
Go deeper with Google Headlines on:
Graphene light sail
[google_news title=”” keyword=”graphene light sail” num_posts=”5″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Space propulsion technologies
- JPL study uses metagenomic sequencing to monitor microbial burden on spacecraft
A recent study published in the journal PLOS ONE uses metagenomics to examine the microbial composition in samples obtained from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Study: Multi-faceted metagenomic ...
- Electric Propulsion Satellite Market Share, Analysis, Overview, Key Players Profiles, Trends, Development by 2030
The competitive landscape of the Electric Propulsion Satellite market has been discussed in detail. The report highlights leading companies, their performance over the past few years, and their key ...
- A Controversial Rocket Technology Could Challenge a Basic Law of Physics
This technology offers many advantages, including lower mass and improved energy efficiency, ultimately lowering costs. On June 10th, 2023, an all-electrical propulsion system for satellites (the IVO ...
- NASA continues to troubleshoot Moon-bound spacecraft's propulsion system
They have until the end of April to generate the required thrust to preserve the opportunity to allow for monthly flybys of the lunar South Pole," NASA said in a statement on Thursday. Lunar ...
- Is Relativity Space Re-Shaping the Space Industry?
During the past 62 years, the American space industry has engineered and developed its way into outer space at a rate faster than humans could ever have imagined, reaching for our own moon all the way ...
Go deeper with Google Headlines on:
Space propulsion technologies
[google_news title=”” keyword=”space propulsion technologies” num_posts=”5″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
