Vincent,

Nice idea, but not original. Hoyt, Forward and Moravec have each proposed
using tethers for lunar landing and sample return some years ago.

It can be done even more cheaply than you propose.

You do not even need any ion drive or propulsion at all actually. You can
do it entirely with zero momentum exchange, you simply deposit payloads on
to the lunar surface whose mass equals that of the samples you remove.

For the details, take a look at these web links:

http://www.tethers.com/MXTethers3.html

http://www.tethers.com/MXTethers.html

Best regards,

Charles F. Radley AFAIAA

(Vincent Cate) wrote in message . com...
My father (Henry Cate) and I have come up with an initial tether project
that might be fun, affordable, and profitable. The idea is to use a
rotating tether to pickup some Lunar samples, bring them back to Earth,
and sell them.


[snip]


We have not seen this idea of using a rotating tether to pick up lunar
samples anyplace else and think it looks very promising. What do you
think?

-- Vince