Magnetospheres and Electrodynamic Tethers

[Burninate]

Along with solar sails and solar electric propulsion, ED tethers are one of the big concepts in replacing chemical thrust. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrodynamic_tether

This would require a magnetosphere / ionosphere model, and enables trading off orbital velocity directly for power, contingent on the position and direction of the ship being conducive to traction against the planetary magnetic field.

[chaos_forge]

The problem with this is that it would require some kind of magnetosphere implementation, which has to potential to complicate things a whole lot