How could a self contained organic body propel itself in space
How could an organic, plant-like, intelligent organism move around space?
Assuming that the body is inside a small meteoroid and that outside of the meteoroid is covered in tessellating leaves to gather sunlight, to allow it to survive.
Since this organism would have to have to conserve matter any matter it lost would be unrecoverable. Usually, to propel oneself around space you shoot stuff out the back and go forward, but without venting matter propelling oneself would be hard.
In short, what are the most viable method for moving around space, without venting matter, and with only sunlight for energy?
How hard it is to have a closed system organism is out of scope for the question.
edit: bonus points if you can figure out a way for it to rotate on the spot.
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/153875. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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An additional problem is how to stop rotation. Differences in albedo (reflectivity) and (inevitable in a vacuum) offgassing rates on the surface of asteroids has been known to cause them to spin up to the point of breaking apart. A method for redistribution of mass,changing of shape, or off-axis propulsion (for rotational acceleration) would be necessary to keep this from happening.
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