Mass advantage of compact plasma accelerators vs. tethered quasi-static acceleration is unclear

Determine whether using compact high-gradient plasma accelerators (∼100 GV/m) to accelerate electrons for the transmitter yields a lower-mass near-solar statite architecture than employing a long-tether quasi-static acceleration approach constrained by vacuum breakdown limits (~10 MV/m).

Background

The transmitter must accelerate electrons to very high energies. Quasi-static acceleration is limited by vacuum breakdown (~10 MV/m) and could require a long drift region, potentially realized via a tethered configuration between the plasma-magnet assembly and the thermionic array. In contrast, modern plasma accelerators achieve gradients up to ~100 GV/m, suggesting centimeter- to meter-scale acceleration lengths.

The paper notes that while compact plasma acceleration could drastically shorten the acceleration path, it is not evident whether that approach is lighter overall than a long-tether arrangement in the proposed near-solar statite configuration.