Lastly, the fusion reaction doesn’t have to be controlled. Just fire off a small scale nuke at the back end of your ship.
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That was Project Orion, killed in 1964 mostly due to failure of political will, service infighting, and a treaty with the Soviets. Else, we would have been on Mars by 1965 and Saturn by 1970, but settled for 12 guys to spend 80 some hours on the Moon 45 years ago.
Lol. “Scifi” is always overly optimistic. But it does point us in the right direction. :)
For propulsion, it might make sense. Maybe the problem is more misconceptions. Those evil nukes kill people.