Hot or Cold Pre-Staged Engines
Sounds like any serious space travel involves the success of Mitsubishi, Frigidaire, Hyundai, and a very, very powerful cable to tow the heat source, and to tow a HUGE amount of water.
But, once water is boiling in a towed vessel, how would such boiling be reduced in space? Towing heat balls and transferring the heat, hoping the temperature drops with each transfer? That would -- depending on the engine heat, life support heat, computing heat, human body heat, and space heat -- take a lot of thermal balls.
It seems that space travel will become a great deal longer with navigational waypoints for cold zones determining the flight path. But, if not enough touchable icy comets and dark sides of moons exist along the route, things till boil to a head.
Maybe multiple pulse rockets will be designed to fire, attain desired velocity to course, then jettisoned when the heat is too unsafe to tow or use. But, instead of merely abandoning the engine module or destructing it, it can shut down so that it can be used by a compatible ship taking the same shipping lane.
Come to think of it, engines could be staged at multiple direct path points and ships would just eject and thruster-park ditched engines, then coast to the next engine way point, then hitch a thrust ride off of it. Wash, rinse, repeat. But, any staged, hitched, and ditched engines would need computers and navigation systems, and may either be self-parked prior to first hitch, or carried in clusters by an initially-towing system.
Hot or Cold Pre-Staged Engines
What say ye? I'm not claiming it's novel, but I also cannot recall having read this idea elsewhere and "imprinted" with it.