[Spaceships] Martian “Gas” Station

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by TGLS

Low efficiency rockets could plausibly "island hop" from space rock to space rock, as adding more propellant to a rocket has declining gains.

Generally not. Even if you can net gain a little more Delta-V from decelrating, refuelling and then accelerating again it won't be worth the time and/or the wear and tear.

Hard science ships can't just "stop". They have to spend Delta-V. So the efficient thing is usually to accelerate once and then decelerate once while you coast at maximum speed in between.