Caplan Thruster

A Caplan Thruster (named after astronomer Matthew E. Caplan) is a type of stellar engine that uses concentrated stellar energy to excite certain regions of the outer surface of the star and create beams of solar wind for collection by a multi-Bussard ramjet assembly, producing directed plasma to stabilize its orbit, and jets of oxygen-14 to push the star. The Bussard engine would use 1015 grams per second of solar material to produce a maximum acceleration of 10−9 m/s2, yielding a velocity of 200 km/s after 5 million years, and a distance of 10 parsecs over 1 million years. While theoretically the Bussard engine would work for 100 million years given the mass loss rate of the Sun, Caplan deems 10 million years to be sufficient for a stellar collision avoidance.