ESA Shot a Laser at Graphene in Zero Gravity — and It Became a Propulsion System

Key Points:

• ESA researchers used lasers to propel ultralight graphene aerogels in microgravity — achieving full acceleration in just 30 milliseconds
• Experiment took place during ESA’s 86th parabolic flight campaign in May 2025; results published in Advanced Science
• Under Earth’s gravity, the aerogels barely moved; microgravity was essential to unlock light-driven propulsion

On April 7, 2026, the European Space Agency published findings from an experiment that sounds like science fiction but is actually hard data: researchers shot a laser at a piece of ultralight graphene aerogel during zero-gravity conditions and watched it accelerate instantly, reaching peak thrust in just 30 milliseconds.

The experiment, part of ESA’s 86th parabolic flight campaign conducted in May 2025, was designed to test whether graphene — the wonder material known for its extraordinary strength and conductivity — could be propelled by light alone, potentially replacing chemical thrusters for certain space applications. The results, published in Advanced Science, show that it can, and it works remarkably well.

The setup was simple but the results were dramatic. Inside a vacuum chamber, researchers beamed a continuous laser at three small cubes made of graphene aerogel — an ultralight, highly porous material that combines graphene’s electrical conductivity with the structural properties of aerogel architecture. A high-speed camera recorded everything through glass tubes.

The graphene samples shot forward instantly. Marco Braibanti, ESA’s project scientist, said the reaction was “fast and furious — before you could even begin to blink, the graphene aerogels experienced large accelerations. It was all over in 30 milliseconds.” Under Earth’s gravity, the same aerogels barely moved at all.

The control aspect is as important as the speed. “The stronger the laser, the greater the acceleration,” Braibanti added. “The laser pulse triggers a sharp acceleration peak, after which the aerogels slow down.” That means you can dial in exactly how much thrust you need by adjusting light intensity — essentially building a propulsion system with no moving parts, no fuel, and no wear over time.

Propellant-Free Propulsion and the Future of Space Travel

Current satellites use chemical thrusters or ion drives for attitude control and trajectory adjustments — both require propellant, which adds weight, limits mission duration, and eventually runs out. A light-driven propulsion system using graphene aerogels would eliminate the propellant problem entirely: you drive the spacecraft with a laser from Earth, or with an on-board laser, for as long as the system functions. No fuel tank. No thruster wear. No mass penalty from carrying propellant.

Ugo Lafont, ESA’s materials physics and chemistry engineer, put it plainly: “We are opening the path to a propellant-free propulsion future. Ultralight graphene aerogels are the perfect example of an innovative material created in the lab that could save us large amounts of fuel and hardware in space.” Future applications discussed include solar sail steering and attitude control for small satellites, where keeping a tiny spacecraft pointed in the right direction currently requires small thrusters that eventually exhaust their propellant.

The concept isn’t entirely new — scientists have known that light carries momentum and can exert pressure. But graphene aerogels, with their ultralow density and large surface area, are uniquely suited to amplifying this effect in ways ordinary materials aren’t. In microgravity, where even a tiny force produces measurable acceleration, the laser-graphene interaction becomes practically useful rather than just theoretically interesting.

From Parabolic Flight to Lagrange Points

ESA is exploring practical applications through the Enable topical team, a working group assessing the full range of benefits related to 2D materials in space. The researchers from Universite Libre de Bruxelles and Khalifa University in the UAE who led the study are now discussing how to scale findings from lab conditions to real spacecraft hardware.

The parabolic flight tests confirmed the physics; the next step is engineering systems that can survive launch, operate in actual space conditions, and integrate with existing spacecraft architectures. There’s a long gap between a zero-gravity flight experiment and a working propulsion system on a satellite — but the fundamentals have been proven.