radiation sail
Names: radiation sailsail
First appears in Book 3: Death's End, chapter 7 (Crisis Era, Years 1–4 Cheng Xin)
Appearances
B1
B2
B3
What you know
Book 3: Death's End
- Ch 10A thin film that carries the payload in a capsule dragged behind it on cables about five hundred kilometers long, like an upward-flying parachute.
- Ch 10The payload capsule has an ablative layer that vaporizes during the nuclear explosions, cooling the capsule and lowering its mass.
Connections
- part ofStaircase Program
Key moments
- Book 3 · Ch 10Staircase Program described
A retrospective account explains how the Staircase Program accelerated a probe to 1 percent of lightspeed using timed nuclear explosions behind a radiation sail, with a payload on very long Flying Blade cables.