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Space exploration is of paramount importance to advancing fundamental scienceand providing global services, such as navigation and communications. However,today's space missions are hindered by limitations of existing propulsiontechnologies. Here, we examine the use of laser-driven light-sailing for agileEarth orbital maneuvering and for fast-transit exploration of the solar systemand interstellar medium. We show that laser propulsion becomes practical atlaser powers around 100 kW and laser array sizes ~1 m, which are feasible inthe near term. Our analysis indicates that lightweight (1 g - 100 g)wafer-scale (~10 cm) spacecraft may be propelled by lasers to orbits that arebeyond the reach of current systems. We further compare our findings withprevious interstellar laser propulsion studies, and show that our approach isless constricting on laser architecture and spacecraft photonic design. Wediscuss material requirements and photonic designs. We show that light-sailsmade of silicon nitride and boron nitride are particularly well suited fordiscussed applications. Our architecture may pave the way to ubiquitous Earthorbital networks and fast-transit low-cost missions across the solar system.

Light-Sail Photonic Design for Fast-Transit Earth Orbital Maneuvering and Interplanetary Flight