Re: "The detached sail will accelerate but the probe will decelerate"
Why ? This is space, there is no aether to decelerate the probe. The probe will continue at its speed, and the sail, being pushed by the laser, will accelerate further and go faster than the probe.
But the probe has no reason to slow down simply because it detached from its sail.
The only way for the probe to slow down is to have a mass drive of some sort that exerts the necessary pressure in the right direction to slow it down.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
