AW wrote: I guess the word tandem was wrong. I mean that if I am traveling on Ion engine 1 and then I launch a separate ion engine from Ion engine 1 then wouldn’t the 2nd ion engine be going faster than the original. Example, if I was driving my car and I threw a ball forward the ball is traveling faster than my car relative to Earth. I guess what I am saying is wouldn’t it be better to launch an ion engine vehicle from a ion engine propelled “platform”? I was watching a show the other day about possibly using an ion engine to get to mars and that it would take less time. I’m suggesting that launching an ion engine “platform” and then having that platform launch another ion engine a few days/weeks/months later would lessen that time even more. Does that make sense?
Yes, I understood your point, but … it’s trivial. There’s no special advantage; it’s the same principle as a multi-stage booster rocket. The only advantage comes if you exhaust the first stage and dump it and let the second go on separately, etc. This advantage is from getting rid of “used up” propulsion components, and with ion engines, there’s not really any such thing. Perhaps an expended fuel tank could be dumped, but that’s about it.
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