Hm, say you are designing a light sail for interstellar travel. Instead of having it be made of thin film and actuators capable of swinging these sails like on

Hm, say you are designing a light sail for interstellar travel. Instead of having it be made of thin film and actuators capable of swinging these sails like on a sail boat... because actuators are more likely to die after millennia in space: say you instead make the space craft tumble but make the sails able to change their albedo (how reflective they are). If you wanted to make a course correction, you'd alternate how reflective they were. If you wanted a push away from a sun, you'd make the side facing a sun bright. If you wanted to fall in more towards a sun, you'd make the side facing a sun dark. Would that work? How much do light sails depend on brightness (light pressure) vs just absorbing molecules in the Solar wind? Edit: Wikipedia says light pressure from photons is most of the effect, but still I can't figure out the difference between a black body sail and a reflective sail.