Light sails – really thin sails that are propelled by photons flying around in space – have been proposed as an alternative propulsion method to travel the cosmos for a long time. Now, there is a startup company in France working to commercialize them. Their co-founder & CEO, Andrew Nutter, is our guest this week. Enjoy!

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Timestamps:

0:00 Intro2:01 Elevator pitch2:49 Origin story4:22 History of light sails8:59 Planetary Society mission11:12 Folding the sail14:20 Hazards in space16:04 Further specs of Gama's sail17:56 Velocity and Acceleration Specs22:23 Oumuamua24:01 Use cases30:16 Dragsail application34:41 GTM & missions37:51 Deep space demonstration39:25 Timeline & long term vision for the company42:24 Business Model45:35 What else is interesting in space?47:30 Sci-Fi