The spaceship in Poul Anderson's Tau Zero uses a Bussard ramjet.
Also all Stat Trek Federation ships
Fantastic book. I read it for the first time about a year ago but I still think about it once every week or two. Thought about it as soon as the "spaceship" started to accelerate towards light speed.
Re:Relativistic Spaceship
by MilStdJunkie on Tuesday February 06, 2024 @10:11AM
(#39275009)
Relativity effects will start to bite. The proton's going to stop being interested in your magnetic field[1], and you're approaching the velocity of the exhaust mass of the fusion reaction.
[1] The momentum vector just completely flattens almost any other physical characteristic. I'm not sure there's even enough time for nuclear fusion to take place.
There are a few engineering difficulties with the idea but it makes for some good SF stories...