[Spaceships] Magsail Braking

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Trachmyr

I am a bit unclear as to when a magsail/plasma sail can begin decelerating. Is it at the Heliopause? Or can a magsail use stellar winds to brake?

If it’s the former, it seems magsails are ineffective is your DV was more than a few hundred mps (multiple magsails would raise this, but not significantly enough for interstellar travel).

If it’s the latter, then what would be the lowest DV allowed to decelerate to, I’m guessing about 375mps.

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Thanks in advance,
Trachmyr

A magsail should be able to decelerate (or potentially accelerate, depending on the local currents) in interstellar space, so long as the ISM is reasonably dense and ionized.

In theory you could decelerate to rest, but thrust is going to be limited by a factor proportional to, if I'm thinking right, the square of velocity relative to the medium.