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
Mass–energy equivalence the velocity is small, the relativistic mass and the rest mass are almost exactly the same. Also Einstein (following Hendrik Lorentz and Max Abraham) used velocity- and direction-dependent mass concepts () in his 1905 electrodynamics paper and in another paper in 1906. However, in his first paper on (1905), he treated as what would now be called the "rest mass". Some claim that (in later years) he did not like the idea of "relativistic mass". When modern physicists say "mass", they are usually talking about rest mass, since if they meant "relativistic mass", they would just say "energy". Considerable debate