[Interview] Punching NanoHoles in Light Sails Can Bring Us Closer to Alpha Centauri

Launching Breakthrough Starshot light sail probes to Alpha Centauri requires a lot of new tech, including the actual light sails. How do you make the optimal material to maximize the size with minimising mass? Finding out in this interview. 😍 [Interview+] Same video. No YT ads. https://www.patreon.com/universetoday 🟣 Guest: Lucas Norder https://www.tudelft.nl/en/staff/l.norder/ 📜 Pentagonal photonic crystal mirrors: scalable lightsails with enhanced acceleration via neural topology optimization https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-57749-y 00:00 Intro 02:11 Current state of tech 04:58 Nano-holes in reflective material 11:08 Manufacturing techniques 14:23 Practical applications 20:58 Possible prototypes 25:57 Current obsessions 30:21 Final thoughts 📺 VIDEO VERSION https://youtu.be/iHLm9oHMsyM 📰 GUIDE TO SPACE Newsletter No ads. Subscribe for FREE: https://universetoday.com/newsletter 🎧 PODCASTS Universe Today: https://universetoday.fireside.fm/ Astronomy Cast: http://www.astronomycast.com/ 📩 CONTACT FRASER frasercain@gmail.com ⚖️ LICENSE Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)