Following its 25-day cruise in low-Earth orbit, LightSail, an experimental solar sail propulsion system launched by The Planetary Society, expectedly fell from its orbit and broke apart in the Earth’s atmosphere. The small boxlike structure was launched into space in May, blossoming into a 32-m2 spacecraft when its thin reflective plastic sail was deployed. Solar sailing works by using sunlight for propulsion. When solar photons struck LightSail’s reflective sails, their momentum was transferred to the spacecraft, gradually accelerating it through space. While the push from...Read full articleRelated content from Photonics MediaARTICLESPhotoluminescent Polymer Detects Stress QuicklyA new stress-detecting polymer that shines brighter when stretched could be used to measure the performance of synthetic polymers and track deterioration in materials that are used in engineering and...Photonics Spectra April 2020 IssueIndustrial Laser Generates Attosecond LightResearchers at the University of Central Florida (UCF) have shown that industrial-grade lasers can be used to generate attosecond pulses. “One of the main challenges of attosecond science...Photonics Spectra November 2020 IssueLaser Pulses Enable Tunable Spin Wave ExcitationA team of researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), the Russian Quantum Center, Saratov State University, and Michigan Technological University has demonstrated a method...Photonics Spectra November 2020 IssueStructured Light Could Increase Information CapacityResearchers from the University of Witswatersrand (Wits) have reported on progress made in the use of structured light in quantum protocols to create a larger encoding alphabet. The researchers said...Photonics Spectra January 2020 Issue