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Originally Posted by djinn
about decelerating - can't you do a lot of that just by going in to orbit around something big when you arrive (and switching off the thrust off)?
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No. At interstellar speeds you would enter a hyperbolic orbit, which would simply carry you away from the star in a diferent direction. In fact the amount of deflection would probably be minimal, unless you manage to find an object with a very strong gravity field, like a black hole. In which case the change of course would be a very uncomfortable experience for you and your ship.
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And maybe you sometimes wouldn't even aim at the star you were heading for. Maybe sometimes it would be better to "slingshot" round something else on the way, where you could lose, or gain, momentum.
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See above. The slingshot effect would be minimal at interstellar speeds (depending on your mass, of course). I've thought about this possibility in connection with binary stars- but the deceleration you would get would be mimimal in most cases.
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And couldn't you steer a bit with angled deflectors? (as long as the beam moved with you ofc)
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Yes. Or you could use a mirror. Robert Forward designed a deceleration configuration for his Starwisp concept (see this image)
http://www.transorbital.net/Library/D001FA02.GIF
using a ring-shaped mirror reflector travelling in front of the sail: but this configuration would require very tight beams, and very lightweight payloads, to work.