I was considering the most possible method of getting mass into space.

the idea starts by observing you want to get the most amorphous simplest 'stuff' into space for the reason that any process likely to work to get it into outer-space can scale well, unlike sending mass up in rockets.

hydrogen being the lightest element , seemingly you could somehow want to get this into space in it's gasseious form. conveniently and helpfully hydrogen is also the base for rocket fuel and potentially electric generator fuel , something you'd want a resupply of in outer space; so it thus seems wise to attempt to transport atomic hydrogen in gas form into space with no containers of ANY SORT. just finding a way to push gas into space to become useful

next , there is a long history of magneto scoop and magneto propulsion designs that rely on the basic phenomena that charged particles can interact with a magnetic field .

it is clear that , an orbital vehicle can theortetically use a magnetic trap to catch and confine charged hydrogen near it.

the question is then, how fast could it catch the hydrogen if the hydrogen were at a differential speed.

my proposal is that hydrogen can be shot out of a particle accelerator at the poles, utilizing the perpendicular polar magnetic polar field lines to leverage the effect , and reach orbital altitude but not orbital speed. once at the height of its altitude in space, the magneto scoop vehicle orbit can be aligned to cross paths with the hydrogen and to scoop up the apparently 'motionless' hydrogen floating at orbital altitude as it passes by.

if the particles deionize on their way up, the magnetic scoop can use microwaves to reionize the gas as it approaches it for pickup.

if the gas can be directed into relatively dense gas columns , (relatively is a relative word!) then maybe a scoop could make this work.

i'm not
-- teslaberry, Mar 01 2015

research on particle beams to open air http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0409157
[teslaberry, Mar 01 2015]

Vent the Atmosphere Vent_20the_20Atmosphere
Similar idea but more egalitarian. [bungston, Mar 01 2015]

An "aurora" happens at quite-high altitude, where fast- moving ions interact with the atmosphere, and are stopped. Your ions are described as being injected into the lower and much-denser atmosphere, theoretically on their way toward outer space. But. practically certain to be stopped by the atmosphere, first.
-- Vernon, Mar 01 2015


//i'm not// You are from where I'm standing.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 01 2015


Maybe he's referring to choosing a category.
-- normzone, Mar 01 2015


You don't need a particle accelerator. You can just release hydrogen into the atmosphere and it will float out into space, because it's so light. Earth naturally loses hydrogen (and helium) this way.
-- notexactly, Mar 09 2015



random, halfbakery