A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight · HackerPapers discussions

A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight — mentioned by zelos

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 13:16:22 GMT

This suggests ejecting a secondary mirror in front of the craft to reflect light to brake the original craft: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1604.01356: "...or by ejecting a reflector that is then used as a braking system (similar to thrust reversal on jets) but this only works if the payload is still within illumination range of the primary laser system"

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight — HN submission

Mon, 21 Aug 2023 10:48:39 GMT

Lightsails: A roadmap to interstellar flight (2015)

2 points; 0 discussion replies on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.

A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight — mentioned by barbegal

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 13:20:21 GMT

The physics doesn't stack up for me. The spacecraft must be lightweight so it can be accelerated to high speeds but it must also have a very large area such that a large proportion of the laser photons hit it. This means a very thin disc shaped spacecraft (a few grams but with a few m2 of area). Whilst this may be able to be constructed it would be incredibly delicate for launch and I can't see how it would have the required strength to avoid it tearing apart under the force applied by the laser photons. A paper produced looking at the feasibility of such a system…

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight — HN submission

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 16:25:40 GMT

A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight (2016)

182 points; 155 discussion replies on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.

A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight — HN submission

Wed, 13 Apr 2016 04:17:23 GMT

A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight

2 points; 0 discussion replies on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.

A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight — HN submission

Wed, 06 Apr 2016 11:57:32 GMT

A roadmap to interstellar flight

5 points; 1 discussion reply on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.