The Drexler lightsail

Marcel schrieb:
>
> Hey, thanks for the link.
>
> Ground based light sails are usually about 8 microns thick. Drexler
> sails utilizes pure aluminum that is only 0.1 micron thick. And such
> an extremely thin material could not endure the rigors of a space launch.
>
state of the art are rather 2 microns now for aluminum coated
Kapton (TM) solar sails.
Although aluminum has a specific mass of 2.7 g per ccm.
I think, Capton has less than that.

> "The most common material in current designs is aluminized 2 m Kapton film."
source: http://www.answers.com/topic/solar-sail?cat=technology

But you are right, I also see space constructed solar sails as the right
way to go. And why not use the Drexler sail material in other space
construction solar sail spacecraft designs as well?

regards

Frank