  We model accelerated trips at high-velocity aboard light sails (beam-powered
propulsion in general) and radiation rockets (thrust by anisotropic emission of
radiation) in terms of Kinnersley's solution of general relativity and its
associated geodesics. The analysis of radiation rockets relativistic kinematics
shows that the true problem of interstellar travel is not really the amount of
propellant, nor the duration of the trip but rather its tremendous energy cost.
Indeed, a flyby of Proxima Centauri with an ultralight gram-scale laser sail
would require the energy produced by a 1 GW power plant during about one day,
while more than 15 times the current world energy production would be required
for sending a 100 tons radiation rocket to the nearest star system. The
deformation of the local celestial sphere aboard radiation rockets is obtained
through the null geodesics of Kinnersley's spacetime in the Hamiltonian
formulation. It is shown how relativistic aberration and Doppler effect for the
accelerated traveller differ from their description in special relativity for
motion at constant velocity. We also show how our results could interestingly
be extended to extremely luminous events like the large amount of gravitational
waves emitted by binary black hole mergers.
