The following is a conversion of the rules from the Magsails article in Roleplayer #29, into a form compatable with Vehicles, Second Edition. Many thanks to Sean Barrett for writing the original article and providing the initial translation of this drive into game terms. Magsails (TL8) The magsail, first proposed by D. G. Andrews and R. M. Zubrin in 1988, is a superconducting loop of wire, miles long; the magnetic field generated interacts with the sun's plasma wind, allowing the vehicle to maneuver in the solar system with no reaction mass and very little power consumption. This lets it perform maneuvers that would be impossible for Lightsails, and unfeasable for traditional reaction drives. The magnetic field used by the magsail provides total radiation shielding against charged-particle radiation, but is totally ineffective against x-rays, gamma radiation, and neutrons. TL: Magsails first become available at TL 8. Weight: the Magsail's mass is measured in pounds. Radius: the Magsail's maximum deployable radius is 0.02 x mass in pounds x (TL - 6), in miles. Volume: Volume (when not deployed) is equal to mass/100. Cost: Cost is $2000 per pound of magsail. Power: The Magsail reuires a certain amount of energy to be dumped into it to expand to a given radius; this energy is stored in the magsail until it is retracted, at which point the energy is recovered for use elsewhere. The amount of energy needed to expand the magsail to a given radius is 11 * (target radius)^3 kilowatt-seconds. Thrust: At 1 AU, the magsail can generate 0.05 * (current radius)^2 lbs thrust directly away from the Sun, and up to 0.015 * (current radius)^2 lbs thrust at right angles to the Sun. To handle distances other than 1 AU, divide the thrust by the cube root of (distance in AUs)^4. Note that this is less of a drop-off than lightsails experience. PF: MagSails provide a PF of 1.21 million x (current radius)^4 against charged particle radiation, and a PF of zero against neutral-particle radiation. Against mixed-type hazards, assume a PF of 10. PD: A Magsail with a current radius of 1 mile or greater provides PD 6 against charged-particle/anti-particle beams, flamers, and fusion beams. ---------------- AUTHOR'S NOTES: Weight The original article suggests that early TL8 should use a mass-to-thrust ratio of 500, and leaves the placement of the further improvements to the GM's discretion; the formula I provide here is based on the observation that a MagSail is in many ways an energy storage device; and GURPS assumes that such devices gain 50% storage capability for a given mass for every TL of improvement. Volume I chose mass/100 because, IMHO, the Magsail is very much like a Power Cell, and Power Cells have a volume of weight/100. Price At Early TL8, a magsail that produces 5 lbs of thrust weighs 2500 lbs and is 10 miles in diameter. Even with a price of $1000 per lb, it is smaller, lighter, and cheaper than a TL8 Lightsail. In fact, it seems to be totally superior to the equivelent Lightsail. So, to keep Lightsails viable in a game, I kicked the price up, so that Lightsails become the less expensive option. PF In MA Lloyd's excellent Vehicles Additions notes, he suggests that a magnetic shield should require 0.01 kWs x sqrt(PF) to run; reverse-engineering this, we find that the PF provided by a given energy in Magnetic Shielding would be 10,000 x stored energy^2. However, the magnetic field formed by a Magsail is miles away from the ship, and thus substantially weakened by the range. Lacking any hard numbers, I've assumed that the actual PF protecting the ship would vary inversely with the square of the radius of the Magsail. From these assumptions, the PF that I give was derived.