MPI has been supporting How Wachspress, an inventor who holds a Patent and has done many experiments that suggest a free-flying magnetic levitator can become practical, and provide a better path to access to space.
A levitator can be designed to take off and land at ordinary airports, using the geomagnetic field as the stator of a very clever electric motor.
The geomagnetic field? 0.6 gauss at the maximum? That's preposterous. As Clarke wrote in "Profiles of the Future:"
"The Earth's magnetic field is so extremely feeble (a toy magnet is thousands of times stronger) that it is not even worth considering. From time to time one hears optimistic talk of 'magnetic propulsion' for space vehicles, but this is a project somewhat comparable to escaping from Earth via a ladder made of cobwebs. Terrestrial magnetic forces are just about as tough as gossamer."
You would have to have a ship that reacted against the field with a plate of hundreds of square kilometers, and the plate would have to weigh a few kilograms.
- Jed
