Mass driver constrained by a limited amount of onboard spacecraft power. Thrust and momentum from exhaust, per unit mass expelled, scales up linearly with its velocity (momentum = mv), yet kinetic energy and energy input requirements scale up faster with velocity squared (kinetic energy = mv). Too low exhaust velocity would excessively increase propellant mass needed under the rocket equation, with too high a fraction of energy going into accelerating propellant not used yet. Higher exhaust velocity has both benefit and tradeoff, increasing propellant usage efficiency (more momentum per unit mass of propellant expelled) but decreasing thrust and the current rate of
Velocity Moments image, formula_4 is the intensity of the pixel at the point formula_5 in the image, and formula_6 is the basis function. Cartesian velocity moments are based on these Cartesian moments. A Cartesian velocity moment formula_7 is defined by where formula_2 and formula_3 are again the dimensions of the image, formula_11 is the number of images in the sequence, and formula_12 is the intensity of the pixel at the point formula_5 in image formula_14. formula_15 is taken from Central moments, added so the equation is translation invariant, defined as where formula_17 is the formula_18 coordinate of the centre of mass for