[Spaceships] Magsail acceleration question

[acrosome]

Originally Posted by malloyd

The "sail" isn't physical, not even in the classic design. It's a volume around the current carrier limited by how far the magnetic field can reach. As the density of the particle wind goes down, the field can reach further away from the physical loop. It is after all the point to induce motion in those charged particles, and moving them sets up counterfields. The denser they are, the closer to your spaceship those induced fields will screen the rest of the universe from the field of your magsail.

OK, that I get. I was misunderstanding how the magnetic field worked in a classic magsail. (I understood how the plasma sail automatically scaled.)

Next question:

External Pulsed Plasma "Orion" drives require DR50 on the rear hull section as a pusher plate (or DR5 + magsail). However, the write-up for more advanced pulse drives do not mention this. Do they also need DR50 pusher plates? Or are they presumed to use some sort of external magnetic containment or something?

[SuedodeuS]

Originally Posted by acrosome

External Pulsed Plasma "Orion" drives require DR50 on the rear hull section as a pusher plate (or DR5 + magsail). However, the write-up for more advanced pulse drives do not mention this. Do they also need DR50 pusher plates? Or are they presumed to use some sort of external magnetic containment or something?

The more advanced versions use a rapid series of much, much smaller explosions, such that the drive's built-in pusher plate is sufficient to prevent any damage.