I think this is a fascinating idea.

Future spacecraft may surf the magnetic fields of Earth and other planets, taking previously unfeasible routes around the solar system, according to a proposal funded by NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts. The electrically charged craft would not need rockets or propellant of any kind.

Mason Peck of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, US, has received a grant to study the idea, which is based on the fact that magnetic fields exert forces on electrically charged objects.

He says a satellite could charge itself up in one of two ways – either by firing a beam of charged particles into space, or simply by allowing a radioactive isotope to emit charged particles. The charged satellite would then be gently pushed by Earth's rotating magnetic field, enabling it to change orbit and even escape to interplanetary space.

I tinkered around with electrodynamic tethers early last year, trying to work out a near-future space survival story using them, but couldn't make it come together to my satisfaction, and end up shelving it unfinished. There's a lot about these "field riders," as the article calls them, that's similar in concept.

The only problem with this, from a fiction standpoint, is the amount of time involved.

Tethers may prove hard to control, however; and both tethers and sails would have to be huge – measuring at least 20 to 30 kilometres, says Peck. "We're proposing something much lighter and smaller." He thinks he can get similar performance with a stocking about 2 or 3 kilometres long, and because it could be made from lightweight carbon fibre, it would have a mass of only a few kilograms.

The force it produces would be far too low to actually launch a spacecraft through the atmosphere – that would still be the job of a conventional rocket. After reaching orbit, his present design would be off to a slow start, taking about a year to escape the Earth's gravity.

But once away from Earth, the field rider could travel to its natural home: Jupiter, which has a magnetic field vastly stronger than Earth's. Peck suggests future missions to Jupiter could use its field as a brake, reducing the mass of propellant needed and saving money.

Jupiter could also be used as a staging post for the rest of the solar system, since a spacecraft could in theory make sharper turns using the giant planet's magnetic field than it could with a simple gravitational slingshot.

A year to escape Earth's gravity? Yikes! Won't be zipping off to Jupiter and back in your field rider for a quick vacation, I shouldn't think...