Breakthrough Starshot announced back in 2016, was an extremely ambitious project to send a fleet of miniature spacecraft powered by powerful lasers to Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to our Solar System.
Updated August 2026 Solar sails are the only method of spacecraft propulsion in which no fuel is needed. Until recently spacecraft powered by solar sails were the stuff of science fiction. However, following the success of the Japanese spacecraft IKAROS in 2010 the crowd-funded Light Sail 2 spacecraft in 2019 and NASA's ACS3 in 2024,… Continue reading Solar Sails: Fuel-Free Space Travel
Update 21 September 2025 As this is a changing area, I have replaced this post from 2021 with a revised and updated one. This is available at https://explainingscience.org/2025/09/21/solar-sails-fuel-free-space-travel/ I have also created a video which goes into solar sails in much more detail https://youtu.be/PcwASDdNQxk
Explaining Science 