Aerographite: a Candidate Material for Interstellar Photon Sailing

Aerographite has been suggested in a recent paper as a possible candidate for interstellar photon sailing. This paper begins by presenting known properties of this extremely low density, light absorptive, material. After a review of analytical tools, a number of possible interstellar missions are then considered. The first confirms that a thin-film Sun-accelerated probe deployed at the 0.4-AU perihelion of an initially parabolic solar orbit could reach Proxima/Alpha Centauri after a voyage duration of about two centuries. The next case examined is a thin-film probe accelerated to about 0.033 c by an in-space laser array. Finally, it is shown that a combined aerographite-graphene hollow-body solar-photon sail may have significant advantages in accelerating a generation ship to an interstellar cruise velocity in excess of 900 km/s. Some of the unknowns regarding this substance that must be addressed before this material can be applied to interstellar sail application, including the closest feasible perihelion distance and aerographite performance in the space environment, are also discussed. Keywords: Aerographite, Graphene, Photon Sailing, Interstellar Travel