The magnetic sail is a quite new concept of space propulsion utilising the solar wind in order to transfermomentum to a magnetic field source. The magnetic field size can be increased significantly by injecting a plasma intothe center of the magnetic bubble. This concept is called Mini-Magnetospheric Plasma Propulsion (M2P2) system. Theplasma injection shall create a magnetosphere with a diameter of several km. Because of these large scales, experimentsare difficult and most of the published studies on this concept are therefore based on numerical investigations. The appliedapproaches, MHD and hybrid (MHD/kinetic), are analysed in the context of the strongly diverging results in the publishedstudies on e.g. magnetic field decay. A validity parameter (Damk?hler number) for the simulation methodologies isproposed and also an analytical estimation of basic M2P2 characteristics is presented. Finally, a recommendation is givenfor future M2P2 simulation methodologies which, for the sake of accuracy, should base on purely kinetic approaches.
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