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

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 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