Figure 6.8 illustrates a clever laser-sail rocket design pioneered in 1984 by Robert Forward, the same physicist who invented the statites we explored for Dyson sphere construction. Just as air molecules bouncing off a sailboat sail will push it forward, light particles (photons) bouncing off a mirror will push it forward. By beaming a huge solar-powered laser at a vast ultralight sail attached to a spacecraft, we can use the energy of our own Sun to accelerate the rocket to great speeds. But how do you stop? This is the question that eluded me until I read Forward’s brilliant paper: as figure
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