Long cables to power plasma rockets to orbit.

Magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters have the advantage that they can be
scaled up to produce large amounts of thrust, while still maintaining
the high ISP of ion drives:

Magnetoplasmadynamic Thrusters.
"Testing for these thrusters has demonstrated exhaust velocities of
100,000 meters per second (over 200,000 mph) and thrust levels of 100
Newtons (22.5 pounds) at power levels of 1 megawatt. For perspective,
this exhaust velocity will allow a spacecraft to travel roughly 11
times the top speed of the space shuttle (18,000 mph)."
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/about/fs22grc.html

MY ELECTRIC ROCKET ENGINE.
http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/mpd.htm

The problem is the high amount of power required. However high
electrical power has been delivered up to hundreds of kilometers on
Earth over power lines. Then this could be used to deliver the
required electrical power to the thrusters from the ground.

Bob Clark

c.f.,
Newsgroups: sci.astro, sci.space.policy, sci.physics
From: "Robert Clark"
Date: 20 Mar 2006 20:23:18 -0800
Local: Mon, Mar 20 2006 11:23 pm
Subject: Long cables to power arcjet rockets to orbit?
http://groups.google.com/group/sci.p...d3fba4a33a6d13