[Spaceships] Query: Activating Mag-Sails

[DaltonS]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

I'm afraid you've confused "plasma sails" with "mag sails". As Dalton points out the mag sail is a big loop of superconducting cable.

The solar wind bouncing off the superconducting magnetic field of that cable transfers momentum to the cable and whatever is attached to it. This is similar to what happens at the periphery of the plasma sail but the two things are different ways of skinning the same cat.

Do you think it's retractable? Should it be discharged first? How would that be done?

Dalton “always interested in informed opinions” Spence