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> alternatively you ionize that particle, may be make in into plasma by laser for ease of "digestion" down in the engine, direct in into the engine where it is used as working mass for your ion thruster, kind of similar to scramjet

This is a Bussard ramjet [1]. The interstellar medium is too thin to make it work. (Maybe we'll find the husk of an ancient ramjet from an earlier era of the universe floating around one day...)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bussard_ramjet






Bussard would collect gas to be used as fuel. For ion thruster it is only a working mass.



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