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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mustrum_Ridcully" data-source="post: 5031440" data-attributes="member: 710">We can do this. It's not very fast, but it provides some propulsion. And the further away you get from the sun, the weaker the effect. IIRC, probes like from the Voyager series that reached the edge of our solar system (as far as one can define such an edge) have experienced noticeable course changes due to the solar radiation. (But gravity from planets and solar winds in form of ionized particles also play a role.) Actio = Reactio, as Newton said, IIRC. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> The flashlight does create a propelling force on the black panel, but also a propelling force on itself in the opposite direction. If you do not couple flashlight and black panel, it would work. As the distance grows, less light arrives at the black panel itself, making the effect weaker and weaker. Better to use some kind of Laser, of course, as the beam will stay coherent for longer. But as long as you don't create a perfect laser beam, it will always widen a little over distance and you will lose efficiency. Depending on how powerful you can get your laser, this might be a decent way. You could build a giant construction powering the laser and have a small probe "ride" on the beam. Of course, changing course is limited now.</blockquote>

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