Should the Sail Be Absorbing or Reflective Why?

Why? NASA is giving serious consideration to the concept of solar sailing

. A solar sailcraft uses a large, low- mass sail and the energy and momentum of sunlight for propulsion The sail should be reflective because in this case the momentum transferred to the sail per unit area per unit time is.

Why do solar sails need to be reflective?

A solar sail spacecraft has large reflective sails that capture the momentum of light from the Sun and use that momentum to push the spacecraft forward.

Why are solar sails reflective not black?

If a solar sail was black, it would absorb more light energy, but it wouldn't reflect any. The momentum gained from a solar sail is the photons hitting the sail, and bouncing back out, producing a little bit of force.