2018 Van Horn Distinguished Lectures: trip the light fantastic -  photonics and interstellar travel
Channel: bhadeshia123
Date: 16/05/2018

The Kent R. van Horn Lectureship is an endowed Lectureship at the Case Western Reserve University and dates from 1974. It honours Kent R. van Horn, an alum, who had a distinguished career as a metallurgist, director of research, and ultimately corporate vice-president of Alcoa. Three lectures on varied topics are to be delivered over three successive days. The 2018 lectures were delivered by Professor Harry A. Atwater of the California Institute of Technology. 

These videos are reproduced courtesy of the Materials Science and Engineering Department of Case Western Reserve University and with the permission of Professor Harry A. Atwater.

http://engineering.case.edu/emse/node/121
http://www.phase-trans.msm.cam.ac.uk

2018 Van Horn Distinguished Lectures: part 3
trip the light fantastic -  photonic materials and challenges for interstellar travel

Abstract:

Research in nanophotonic materials and design is yielding advances that are opening conceptually new paths to address “grand challenges” that have not previously been achievable. One of these is the design of light-propelled spacecraft capable of reaching the stars beyond our solar system, since light itself is the only fuel capable of propelling spacecraft to the relativistic speeds needed to achieve interstellar travel. Recently, the Breakthough Starshot initiative has captured scientific imagination and motivated thinking about conceptual prototypes for light-driven spacecraft that could reach nearby stars within a human lifetime. I will describe how this audacious concept may be closer than we imagine, if advances in materials and nanophotonics can enable key concepts for spacecraft propulsion, instrumentation and communications.