Editing Openai/691a2d9f-c044-8012-bccf-942bfce6334d (section)

==== It becomes a liability when: ====
# Caches are too far off in angle or speed - If intercepting a cache costs, say, 5 km/s of sideways and speed-change maneuvers, and the extra propellant you get only buys you 3 km/s of useful delta-v, → you are net worse off. - This is what happens if you throw depots without extremely tight trajectory design.
# You’re deep in the interstellar gulf

Once you’re well away from any star:
* Space is dynamically “flat”: you’re just coasting in a straight line at nearly constant velocity.
* Every zig-zag is pure waste: - it lengthens the trip, - eats fuel, - adds habitat stress and time for failures.

Here, the optimal strategy is:

: 
# Time costs dominate

For a generational ship:
* Every extra decade of travel: - increases cultural drift, - multiplies maintenance burden, - compounds failure probabilities.

So even if a zig-zag is marginally delta-v positive, it might be strategically negative because it extends mission duration.