StarFly Aerospace Technologies
Image: The Planetary Society
about
StarFly Aerospace Technologies is a startup that aims to involve in the research & development of rockets and spacecraft for future interstellar space missions, both robotic and human. The company was founded in 2020, with the ultimate goal of exploring our neighboring star systems up close. Besides our current pursuit of knowledge using telescopes and the near future - human interplanetary missions, StarFly hopes to push our boundaries to a whole new level where interstellar missions are made commonplace by the end of the 21st century.
light sails
Light sails are ultralight spacecraft that can be propelled by solar radiation or using high-power laser beams from the earth's surface, making a light sail attain a significant percentage of the velocity of light. Currently, the prime objective of StarFly is to conduct rigorous research on the manufacturing and dynamics of the ultralight sails so that among the swarms of these spacecraft, a desirable number of spacecraft would be able to make it to the target star system. The first obvious targets for close-up study would be the Proxima Centauri and the Alpha Centauri star systems, and StarFly hopes to launch the first swarm to these stars by 2030.