This is somewhat of a continuation of the article on vacuum balloons I wrote some time back.
When contemplating non rocket space flight, there is really not much to find, because it is exceptionally hard to do so. But maybe it is so hard to do, because many writers focus on one method exclusively, like only using a space gun or just using the Lofstrom Loop.
But even chemical rockets use several different stages -one for each task. This approach should at least be considered in the non rocket space launches as well.
As I wrote last time, vacuum balloons are not yet there, that we can use them in lower earth atmosphere but maybe much higher or on different planets maybe.
My approach, although also flawed, might be an interesting one in its theory.
The first stage should only consider big helium or hydrogen weather balloons. This should be enough to lift the potential cargo into the last bits of real atmosphere. Then the vacuum balloon should be used. By using a pump to suck every bit of gas (i.e. hydrogen or helium) out of the vacuum balloons as well and let those do the job of further lifting the cargo up. The same time the weather balloons and the pump should dispatch. Here it should be noted that carrying such a pump up might just be impossible because most pumps need a lot of energy and are quite heavy.
The next and final step would be to use a simple ion drive, that is potentially using solar panels to ionize the leftover particles of the earth atmosphere to accelerate the cargo to higher speeds.
Of course the vacuum balloons should get dispatched at this point too.
Some problems in my approach are:
-building a pump lightweight enough to be just a minor annoyance when using the weather balloons.
-Solar panels are quite bad in regards to energy per units of mass. Additionally their power might not be enough to power the ion drive.
-Being that high up in the atmosphere may not leave enough particles for such an primitive ion drive to work. Using a regular ion drive might be an option, were it not for the increased weight of the fuel.
-The trust of the ion drive might not even be enough to keep the cargo at the right speed.
-This approach seems to prefer lightweight probes instead of heavy equipment or even people.
