It is very difficult to make a launch vehicle powerful enough of your own. No matter how you do it, you will need a good deal of propellant for lunar transit, descent and landing. This means the launch mass is bound to be relatively high. Also, your launch vehicle has to be capable of reaching orbital velocity (approximately mach 22). Even the best amateur rockets, to my knowledge, have only achieved around a fourth of this velocity, and that is with no payload.
If you are interested in having your ideas seriously considered, please consider joining Team FREDNET, an open source team in the Google Lunar X PRIZE. Most everyone are welcome: http://www.teamfrednet.org
It is very difficult to make a launch vehicle powerful enough of your own. No matter how you do it, you will need a good deal of propellant for lunar transit, descent and landing. This means the launch mass is bound to be relatively high. Also, your launch vehicle has to be capable of reaching orbital velocity (approximately mach 22). Even the best amateur rockets, to my knowledge, have only achieved around a fourth of this velocity, and that is with no payload.
Ion drives aren't practical for a mission like this for a number of reasons. For a full discussion of why, please see this article: http://openspacex.org/2008/10/06/escaping-the-grip-of-mother...
If you are interested in having your ideas seriously considered, please consider joining Team FREDNET, an open source team in the Google Lunar X PRIZE. Most everyone are welcome: http://www.teamfrednet.org