Sentences with phrase «light sail technology»

Humans are currently experimenting with light sail technology that uses light from the sun.

Crossing the huge distance between the Sun and Alpha Centauri using current spacecraft technologies would take several millennia, though the possibility of nuclear pulse propulsion or laser light sail technology, as considered in the Breakthrough Starshot program, could reduce the journey time to a matter of decades.

Not exact matches

But Jeffrey Sheehy, chief engineer of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C., and Johnson agree that the technology could potentially pave the way for interstellar missions, in which powerful lasers could accelerate sail spacecraft to a tenth the speed of light Technology Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C., and Johnson agree that the technology could potentially pave the way for interstellar missions, in which powerful lasers could accelerate sail spacecraft to a tenth the speed of light technology could potentially pave the way for interstellar missions, in which powerful lasers could accelerate sail spacecraft to a tenth the speed of light or faster.

The group says it is the only practical technology that might be used for interstellar travel, since the light generates a small but constant pressure that should accelerate a sail to high speeds over time.

Sailing He, meanwhile, had made a name for himself in photonics, the effort to develop technologies that manipulate light much as electronic devices control the flow of electricity.