Final answer:
Afterburners are not fuel-efficient, but provide high thrust for short durations, while ion thrusters offer lower thrust but higher efficiency. Solar sail craft can indeed be propelled by the solar wind. A rocket in space will travel in a straight line until influenced by another force.
Step-by-step explanation:
True or False: afterburners are a fuel-efficient way of increasing thrust. This statement is false. Afterburners provide additional thrust by injecting fuel into the jet pipe and igniting it, but they do so at the cost of significantly increased fuel consumption. Afterburners are therefore not fuel-efficient, though they are effective for short bursts of speed or power. For comparison, an Ion Thruster is an example of a propulsion system with low thrust but high efficiency, as it provides a more constant thrust over a long period and has been used in space missions like NASA's Deep Space 1 and Japan's Hayabusa.
The true or false statement concerning the propulsion of a solar sail craft using particles within the solar wind is true. Solar sails are propelled through space by the radiation pressure exerted by the solar wind and sunlight itself, not by using traditional propulsion systems.
As for the statement about a rocket launched into space, if it escapes Earth's gravitational pull, it will continue to travel in a straight line until acted on by another force is also true, following Newton's first law of motion. The misconceptions regarding rockets needing to push against something to propel themselves are false; in fact, rockets work more efficiently in a vacuum.