Tsiolkovsky based his famous equation on the assumption of Newton's Third Law, that mass and velocity have no relation to each other. What does his equation look like for Einstein's Special Relativity?
I hadn't yet asked myself that question. I don't think we're even ready for that question. Alien Legacy et M. Bussard promised à nous ramjets, to use the wispy local-fluff hydrogen for propellant. Centauri-Dreams keeps talking solar-wind. But nobody's rescued Bussard since the first time I poasted this, and out in interstellar space we don't get much solar power anymore. I've been concentrating on thrust (as of now 320 tons / 450 bar) and ISP.
So: a few years ago David Burns (presumably his real name) proposed the helical engine. The claim here is that, once you get to relativistic speed, you can leverage the mass increase to increase the speed more. In fact after a certain speed, Burns would dispense with propellant entirely. So what's he doing - riding gravitational waves?
Four years on - contrast Musk - all Burns has got us is hype. There's a distinct odour of EMDrive here.
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