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If this proves to work, it will pave the way for laser sails and statites (satellites held against gravity by photon pressure).
How wonderful, the sci-fi books of my youth become reality, sort of.
Question, Space is not empty, at any moment space is full of stuff traveling at thousands of mph. Big rocks down to fast moving bits the size of the head of a pin.
If you have ever seen anything sand blasted you know the power of even one grain of sand traveling 900 mph. What is to keep an unmanned craft with solar sails from being torn to bits in a solar storm??
What happens when the craft gets beyond our solar winds, will it just drift aimlessly until caught in gravity of a fast moving comet?
Check out our moon tonight, the moon is in no way smooth as a pool ball. It is covered with pits worse then a young teens face with acne. Our system with its 9 planets has for billions of years been assaulted by space debris, every day some kind of strike is made on our Earth by stuff from " OUT THERE"
I know that we have sent ships out to photo some of our planets, so far some are still sending back pictures and information. This could be due to pure luck or the conditions were correct for the mission.
Put it this way, we have out huge passenger jets that can span the earth with no problem every day, but a few times a year our planes get a seagull in the intake of an engine and has a big problem on their hands.