Incubator Meeting on Metamaterial Films for In-Space Propulsion by Radiation Pressure, at OSA Headquarters, Washington, DC, 7-9 October 2018

被称为超材料的先进光子材料通过辐射压力提供了在太空中航行的新机会。本次孵化器会议将于2018年10月7日至9日在光学学会总部举行，将通过聚集衍射超材料、辐射压力和航天领域的专家来推动太空帆船推进、导航和控制的发展，支持与学术界和工业界的多项协调活动。该项目的目标是展示前景看好的新研究和技术，同时激发人们对太阳能或激光驱动的帆船的热情，并建立一条使用基于经过改造的透射性或反射性超材料的被动或主动薄膜的太阳能或激光驱动帆船的道路。通过推进新的太空操纵方式的技术，这个孵化器将对空间利用的经济性产生广泛的影响，影响从通信和遥感卫星到太阳系和星际探测器的一切。这些进展将加强学术界、工业界和美国国家航空航天局之间的伙伴关系，改善国家安全，并提高美国的经济竞争力。本次孵化器会议将汇聚空间、材料和光学机械领域的三个不同领域，以刺激和促进超材料薄膜在光驱航天器中的新应用。与科学中许多智力活跃的领域一样，在这些领域，进步来自于其他不同学科之间的交叉，会议将结合三个社区的相关专家，促进对超材料薄膜如何用于外层空间光机械驾驶帆船的理解。在智力上，其影响将是，鉴于空间应用的重量和厚度的限制，激发对超材料薄膜组成的先进思考，并鼓励航天器和卫星设计者对这种能力的创新使用。其好处将是增进如何为太空帆船应用创造相关材料和超材料的知识，并促进航天器设计者如何考虑具有新能力的推进机制。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Advanced photonic materials called metamaterials provide new opportunities to navigate space by means of radiation pressure. This Incubator meeting, to be held at The Optical Society headquarters on 7-9 October 2018, will support multiple coordination activities with academia and industry by bringing together experts in the areas of diffractive metamaterials, radiation pressure, and astronautics to advance the development of in-space sailcraft propulsion, navigation, and control. The goal of the program is to showcase promising new research and technology while building enthusiasm around and establishing a path toward solar or laser-driven sailcraft using passive or active films based on engineered transmissive or reflective metamaterials. By advancing the technology for new ways to maneuver in space, this Incubator will have broad impact on the economics of space utilization, affecting everything from communication and remote sensing satellites to solar system and interstellar probes. These advances will enhance partnerships between academia, industry, and NASA, improve national security, and increase the economic competitiveness of the US. This Incubator meeting will bring together three different communities in space, materials, and opto-mechanics to stimulate and foster new applications for metamaterial films in light-driven space vehicles. As with many intellectually active areas in science, where advances come from the intersections between otherwise separate disciplines, the meeting will combine the relevant experts in the three communities to advance the understanding of how metamaterial films can be used to opto-mechanically steer sailcraft in outer space. Intellectually, the impact will be to stimulate advanced thinking of metamaterial film composition given the limitations of weight and thickness for space applications and to stimulate innovative uses of such a capability by spacecraft and satellite designers. The benefits will be to advance knowledge in how to create relevant materials and metamaterials for space sailcraft applications and to advance how spacecraft designers think about propulsion mechanisms with new capabilities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.