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 spectrometry the time they take to reach the detector. If the particles all have the same charge, the kinetic energies tends to be identical, and their velocities, in this case, will depend only on their masses. Ions with a lower mass will reach the detector first. However, in reality, even particles with the same m/z can arrive at different times at the detector, because they have different initial velocities. The initial velocity is not dependent on the mass of the ion what becomes a problem for the TOF-MS. The difference in initial velocity turns into difference in the final velocity. In