Mass drivers as spaceship launchers

Hi darkstar, i brought it up about a month ago to use the rail gun/ maglev technology to boost cargo/passenger spaceships off the earth as maybe the cheapest solution to low earth orbit. no-one picked up the thread. Personally I like the whole technology because a maglev booster technology can just as easily be the fastest train between cities. best regards pete

darkstar wrote: Perhaps someone has writen about this and if so I am sorry but I
think it is a good
idea so I am writing it.
What is my idea? Well, I read much about using mass drivers to
launch bags of ore to
catchers in space yet somehow that seems dangerous. A slight error and
the bag damages
the catcher and spews debris all over the place. Space debris is a
problem and,
given a large industrial base in orbit, will become a very serious one.
Why not use
the mass driver to launch a cargo spacecraft instead?
The magnetic fields that accelerated a bucket of ore to escape
velocity can just
as easily accelerate a towing hook down a ramp pulling a spacecraft.
The ship is
released at the end of the ramp at escape velocity and it