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!

SPACE ECONOMY BOOK: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO

Upcoming newsletter - sign up: https://spacebusiness.substack.com/

Follow us:

Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/podcast_space

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/raphaelroettgen/

Instagram - www.instagram.com/raphael_space/

Learn more about space & the space economy:

Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy

The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.

Support us at https://www.patreon.com/spacebusinesspodcast

Timestamps:

0:00 Intro
2:01 Elevator pitch
2:49 Origin story
4:22 History of light sails
8:59 Planetary Society mission
11:12 Folding the sail
14:20 Hazards in space
16:04 Further specs of Gama's sail
17:56 Velocity and Acceleration Specs
22:23 Oumuamua
24:01 Use cases
30:16 Dragsail application
34:41 GTM & missions
37:51 Deep space demonstration
39:25 Timeline & long term vision for the company
42:24 Business Model
45:35 What else is interesting in space?
47:30 Sci-Fi

Space Business Podcast #114 - Andrew Nutter, Gama Space: Light Sails