Optimizing Startshot Lightsail Design: A Generative Network-Based Approach

The Starshot lightsail project aims to build an ultralight spacecraft (nanocraft) that can reach Proxima Centauri b in approximately 20 years, requiring propulsion with a relativistic velocity of similar to 60 000 km/s. The spacecraft's acceleration approach currently under investigation is based on applying the radiation pressure from a high-power laser array located on Earth to the spacecraft lightsail. However, the practical realization of such a spacecraft imposes extreme requirements on the lightsail's optical, mechanical, thermal properties. Within this work, we apply adjoint topology optimization and a variational autoencoder-assisted inverse design algorithm to develop and optimize a silicon-based lightsail design. We demonstrate that the developed framework can provide optimized optical and opto-kinematic properties of the lightsail. Furthermore, the framework opens up the pathways to realizing a multi-objective optimization of the entire lightsail propulsion system, leveraging the previously demonstrated concept of physics-driven compressed space engineering.

Automated summary

The Starshot lightsail project aims to build an ultralight spacecraft that can reach Proxima Centauri b in 20 years with propulsion from a high-power laser array. The project imposes extreme requirements on the lightsail's optical, mechanical, and thermal properties. The framework developed can optimize the lightsail's optical and opto-kinematic properties, opening up pathways to a multi-objective optimization of the entire lightsail propulsion system.