That’s kind of interesting to think that sailing on light power might be the best mode of space travel after it being man’s mode to discover the world. The question is though, after a couple of months of accelerating at .09 m/s, (you’ll be going 466,000 m/s) how will you stop? No anchors in space, and no friction either. Will you need to fire retro rockets that will take just as much energy as accelerating to 466,000 m/s? Nuclear engines are still going to be required, and if that’s the case, why pack a sail? Of course, I always say that there’s really nothing in space except cold and vacuum. I don’t really have any desire to go there.
Yeah....We were working with carbon sails 15 years ago..Not sure how far they went with it.
I think it’s just one of those science fiction ideas that looked cool in a fictional novel but fails at reality tests.