Photophoretic Flight: Sunlight-Powered Platforms for the Mesosphere’s “Ignorosphere”

Introduction: Strategic Context Between the operational domains of conventional aviation and orbital spacecraft lies a difficult-to-access region of Earth’s atmosphere. The mesosphere, extending approximately from 50 to 85 kilometres in altitude, overlaps with the broader near-space region often discussed as extending toward 100 kilometres. It is too high for conventional aircraft to generate aerodynamic lift…