ground crews can retreat to safe distance when the craft is in operation. otherwise we’d have to space anodes as close as 3 or 4 cm apart, tesselating a sphere, to get shielding mass under 100t.
when it comes to space, propellant cost is king. it isn’t a fair comparison to say Falcon, etc. is cheaper, as those represent single-use vehicles and a mature technology, whereas the purpose of envisioning this is to have routine, possibly daily (hourly?), surface-to-orbit and return missions. the facilities cost is amortized over many launches and vehicles. final cost is more to do with day-to-day operation.
let’s see.. 600 kN nominal but probably 1800 kN max thrust at lift-off;
1800 kN / (100t x 9.8) = 1.84 gee.
