"Chemical rockets that we use today, even with the extra speed boost from flying by planets, or from swinging by the sun for ...

The idea of a lightsail comes from the fact that radiation pressure represents a mechanical pressure acting on a surface due ...

Interstellar travel has long been a dream, but getting to the stars is incredibly difficult. A new project is bringing the space community closer to realizing this dream. The Breakthrough Starshot ...

Ultimately, these findings will help develop space-ready lightsails—one of the most promising vehicles for interstellar travel, as they rely on an essentially limitless energy source ...

You won’t be getting a nicely spread-out set of messages announcing their arrival long before they are very close. “Interstellar spacecraft and their crews must accept highly autonomous operations, ...

Researchers have proposed a new propulsion method that could make covering the vast distances required for interstellar missions feasible within a human lifetime. The fundamental challenge in ...

Though in early stages, this concept shows interstellar travel within human lifetimes is possible, bridging the gap between science fiction and achievable science. A galaxy died billions of years ago.

While researching Starbound, my new book on the realities of interstellar travel, I was often surprised by the bizarre, over-the-top spacecraft designs that scientists have proposed in well ...

When astronomers detected the first long-predicted gravitational waves in 2015, it opened a whole new window into the ...

And globally, while a number of governments and institutions have invested money in antimatter and space-travel research ... s energy was found, then interstellar and human interplanetary missions ...