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STARSAIL

Princeton University Art & Archaeology Senior Thesis Research Project

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A CONCEPTUAL FAR-FUTURE BIOSHIP ART PROJECT

A technological dandelion seed in the cosmic wind, StarSail is a prototype that will store the sum of humanity's knowledge—and information about Earth—in light. With an AGI mind, self-healing body, and adaptable form, StarSail can travel vast interstellar distances to terraform new worlds.

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I fear not the vast distances ahead of me.

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StarSail maintains a hover state, no matter the terrain, enabling the AGI to create a comprehensive scan of the ship’s surroundings.

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​Inspired by raindrops, flowers, and VISION AVTR, StarSail’s compact design enables the ship to launch and glide through space seamlessly. The AGI constantly learns in an artificial brain, which magnetic fields keep in place. StarSail’s Miura-Ori petals are self-healing, bringing StarSail’s design closer to that of an organism than a machine.

THE CONCEPTUAL QUANTUM HARD DRIVE

Building on my Origami Memory Dress (a paper prototype), which conceptually stores qubits in the transitional space between the mountain and valley folds of the Miura-ori—and storing 2^N the amount of data as a normal qubit—, StarSail physically encodes data in lightweight material. 

The condensed form of information storage enables StarSail to bring all the information needed to recreate our civilization on a new world beyond our solar system.

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The Miura-ori tessellation fold gives the paper prototypes structural rigidity and resilience to deformation.

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Miura-ori material tests—I chose the gold material to acknowledge the Voyager Golden Records.

PHYSICAL DATA STORAGE THROUGH LIGHT

StarSail's Origami Magneto-Inertial Fusion Thruster (OMIFT) uses Miura-ori folded petals to store information in light.

Photons having no mass may be beneficial for carrying information great distances beyond Earth, where each ounce requires consideration.

I created the test on the left by projecting a video on a large sheet of Miura-ori. 

THE ORIGAMI MAGNETO-INTERTIAL FUSION THRUSTER (OMIFT)

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Building on Helion’s magneto-intertial fusion design, the OMIFT layers two Miura-Ori folds on top of each other to create two. pairs of chambers. The magenta circles represent plasma, and the central dot represents the site of the fusion reactions. 

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 Firing in succession, we can fuse Deuterium and Helium-3 together to create the energy we need for thrust. The magenta dots in the image above represent the sites of fusion reactions. 

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When fuel is abundant, the StarSail uses the OMIFT to travel (left). When fuel is scarce, StarSail uses the Miura-Ori folds as solar sails to use photons as a propellant (right). 

THE PROTOTYPES

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The Ron Resch Pattern, which is useful for curved surfaces, is a potential configuration for StarSail’s hull. The Miura-ori does not bend well, so I am researching different tessellation folds.

Using origami, we can give new form, rigidity, and adaptability to flat surfaces like paper. Spheres, tori, and other shapes can come from tessellation folds.

Torus fold 01

TORUS HULL PROTOTYPE 01

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Spherical fold 01
Torus fold 03

TORUS HULL PROTOTYPE 02

AGI COMMAND CENTER PAPER SPHERE PROTOTYPE 01

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StarSail: Bioship With an Origami Magneto-Inertial Fusion Thruster (OMIFT)

Digital Illustration, 4320 x 7680 pixels, 2024 (ongoing) 

StarSail is a prototype of a future interstellar spaceship and the DNA for our world as we know it. StarSail has an AGI for the mind, a self-healing body, and an Origami Magneto-Inertial Fusion Thruster (OMIFT), which creates fusion reactions with Deuterium and Helium-3 or expands as a solar sail to use sunlight as fuel. The Miura-ori folds store data in light using principles from quantum computing, enabling StarSail to encode information to terraform exoplanets, restarting human civilization on new worlds. 

StarSail’s form draws inspiration from Arrival, umbrellas, and jellyfish. Considering swarm behavior, biomimicry, and emergent properties like intelligence, StarSail may deliver information to new stars more successfully as a fleet. 

I intend for the final StarSail to be a 6-foot tall paper origami spaceship hung from a moving track on the ceiling. StarSail will be the centerpiece of my senior exhibition Immortality.

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