G-Sail

Thin, reflective films can move upon light radiation from the Sun or a laser beam: the lightsail technology is used in low-Earth orbit applications and navigation control. Sails controlling the attitude of satellites have a limited performance due to the passive nature of these films. Moreover, they are too weak to be used as actual propulsion sails for cheap cargo/human transport in the Solar System. Therefore, large-area films of thin, mechanically-robust and low-mass material are needed. G-Sails are the solution: advanced films with outperforming mechanical, optical and thermal properties that aim to substitute existing lightsail materials.

G-Sail technology

A graphene sail (G-Sail) is a new type of reflective-type solar- or lightsail where CVD graphene layers coated with a highly-reflective nanofilm cover a ultrathin grid. Such a grid structure reduces the average mass density of the sail while the graphene layers provide with mechanical robustness and with wide-area support for the reflective coating. G-Sails are extremely lightweight, enabling the ultimate thrust-to-area propulsion for cheap transport in the outer space.

G-Sails have existing applications in satellites/cubesats (control) and mission shuttles (exploration). In addition, we envision novel usage in the New Space era such as debris deorbiting, asteroid deflection and cheap cargo/human transport within the Solar System. While outperforming standard lightsail materials and overcoming its limits, producing G-Sails is straight-forward with a graphene know-how and the corresponding supplier-enablers-customer network.

Graphene goes to space

Graphene, a one atom thick allotrope of graphite, has the ultimate low mass density with exceptional optical, thermal and mechanical properties. Combined with other 2D materials and ultrathin metal layers, graphene nanofilms are a promising candidate for sail material; and given the comprehensive development of large-scale growth techniques, we can already test centimeter-size G-Sails in real space environments.

Millimeter-size G-Sails were demonstrated during European Space Agency’s Drop Your Thesis! Programme (2017) and Continuously-Open Research Announcement project (2018). This milestone is ahead the sail roadmap from Breakthrough Starshot, and we believe that G-Sails outperform all candidate technologies in every technical specification for such an extreme application.