A Magnetic Sail for Solar-Wind Momentum Capture: Magnetosphere Size, Drag and Deceleration Budgets

This study sizes the system named in its title from stated physical relations and a stated operating basis, and reports the result as SIMULATED, NOT MEASURED. The operating principle is superconducting loop generating an artificial magnetosphere that deflects solar-wind plasma. The magnetic sail vehicle is a civilian cargo transport intended to decelerate interplanetary freight without propellant; it carries no payload other than commercial cargo and navigation equipment. Every performance figure is computed by the deposited script from its inputs rather than asserted, and the headline outcomes include magnetopause standoff distance from the vehicle of 135.1 kilometres; effective momentum-collecting area of 5.74e+04 square kilometres; solar-wind drag force at the stated wind conditions of 132.1 newtons; vehicle deceleration under that drag of 4.7179 millimetres per second squared. Mass, power, time and energy budgets are assembled from components so they can be audited line by line, off-design behaviour is discussed openly, and the limits of the sizing are stated in full. The design is presented as a civilian system throughout, with its governing constraint identified and quantified rather than merely encountered.