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Re:Relativistic Spaceship by galangalalgol on Monday February 05, 2024 @11:59PM (#39270956)
Is there any relativistic bonus that makes deceleration easier? Does it take less energy to go from 0.999C to 0.99C than to go from 0.009C to 0C?
Re:Relativistic Spaceship by phire on Tuesday February 06, 2024 @12:47AM (#39271211)
Acceleration and Deceleration are symmetrical. It takes the same amount of delta-v to accelerate between up to 0.999c as it takes to decelerate all the way back down to 0. Though as you burn fuel your ship gets lighter and the actual energy usage to maintain that constant delta-v of 1G will go down.

As for the energy used to accelerate from 0C to 0.009C compared to 0.99C to 0.999C, I'm not sure. I know the time taken (from an external reference frame) changes, but part of me suspects the total energy stays the same and the difference in time taken is caused entirely by time dilation. However, I suspect I might be messing up reference frames, I don't actually know the equations.