My Space Flight Highway System

Please let me know what you think of the idea, this idea was thought of by myself and I am working on a prototype as well.

http://i44.tinypic.com/2yo1kyp.png
the full image. Sorry, I did not know that it would cut it off.

Someone also postulated this concept somewhere else, in "Science & Tech" I think (which is a more appropriate location BTW).

A couple of problems.

1) Momentum transfer. You have two objects in near orbits (I am assuming this is in low earth orbit?), when you engage the attraction "magnets" you are only going to draw the two together and they will split the velocity change, unless the "connector" significantly outmasses the shuttle. Likewise when you reverse the magnetic field, you are just going to push the two objects away from each other and the shuttle will get very little extra velocity. Look up Newton's Laws.

2) Orbital dynamics. As you accelerate the shuttle (slowly) its going to change its orbit, which means that each time it comes around its going to be in a new, higher orbit, and or you will have to jockey the connector rings around to "catch" the vehicle and continue accelerating it. Very difficult to probably impossible.

Sorry to poop on your idea.