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First apply momentum conservation to the rocket and the infinitesimal amount of expelled gas. During $dt$, the exhaust mass is $\alpha dt$ and its inertial velocity, to first order, is $v-u$. With no dust, the momentum balance isIt gives the rocket equation $\boxed{m\dot{v}=\alpha u}$, while $\dot{m}=-\alpha$.

For a dust-collecting rocket, the incoming dust mass is $\beta vdt$ with zero initial momentum. The same balance has rocket mass $m+(\beta v-\alpha )dt$ after the interval, soConsequentlyThe second term in the acceleration equation accounts for the momentum required to bring collected dust up to rocket speed.

Set $\lambda =\sqrt{\alpha /(\beta u)}$ and $V=\lambda u$, so $\alpha u=\beta V^2$. As long as the engines operate and $0\le v<V$, the velocity increases and time can be eliminated:Integrating from $v=0$, $m=m_0$, givesThus the required mass–velocity relation is

If $\lambda >1$, this formula would give $m\to 0$ as $v\to V^{-}$. In this interval, $\dot{m}=\beta (v-{\lambda }^{2}u)<0$. A real rocket retains positive body mass even after its fuel is gone, and collected dust only increases that residual mass. It therefore cannot follow this branch all the way to zero mass: its fuel must run out while $v<\lambda u$. Indeed the hypothetical time integral $dt/dv=m/[\beta (V^2-v^2)]$ is integrable at $V$ when $\lambda >1$, so even the formal zero-mass endpoint would occur at finite time.

If $0<\lambda <1$, the same relation instead gives $m\to \infty$ as $v\to V^{-}$. The mass first decreases, reaches its minimum at $v={\lambda }^{2}u$, and then increases because dust arrives faster than fuel is expelled. The time integral now diverges at $V$: under indefinitely maintained thrust, $v$ approaches $\lambda u$ asymptotically while stored dust grows without bound. At that limiting speed, thrust $\alpha u$ balances the dust-loading term $\beta v^2$, and $\dot{m}\to \beta u\lambda (1-\lambda )>0$. This is the physical reason the total rocket mass no longer signals fuel exhaustion. A rocket with a finite initial fuel supply still runs out at finite time $t=M_{\mathrm{fuel}}/\alpha$ and before reaching $V$; increasing total mass does not create new fuel.