Heavy lift comparisons

I pulled two graphics out the pdf files for comparison purposes and put them together for comparison.

The left chart is from Parkin's The Microwave Thermal Thruster pdf.  The right chart is from the Augustine Commission Final Report pdf.  I underlined the configuration on the left chart and for comparison, look at the Ares V payload mass.  For one, the underlined configuration is not the biggest one in the chart.  Number two, the Saturn V that took astronauts to the Moon weighs almost 3 times as much while lifting comparable payload.  Number three, the one with the wet mass of 1000 tons will lift as much as the Ares V launcher.  That means it can give the same capability in terms of payload capacity with a much lighter launcher.

Hopefully, this concept of using a Microwave for rocket propulsion will work.

Update:  A couple of questions occurred to me:  1) Could this launch concept
be used on the Moon? and 2) Could this launch system be extended to a landing
system as well?  (especially on the Moon,since it has no atmosphere which
prevents a glider like landing system that the Shuttle used.)