Posted on 05/31/2005 6:06:35 PM PDT by KevinDavis
President Bush's Vision for Space Exploration calls for human and robotic missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond. To realize these ambitious goals, the United States will need more powerful and efficient propulsion and power-generation systems - systems that can thrust a spacecraft out of Earth's orbit to the far reaches of the Universe.
NASA's primary research program for developing these technologies is Prometheus Nuclear Systems and Technology. Named for the ancient Greek god of fire and craft, Prometheus has two initial objectives:
(Excerpt) Read more at spacedaily.com ...
I'd rather they go with other proper anti-gravity devices.
The Father of American rocketry, or one of the fathers of rocketry period, Goddard, had an ion motor working in his lab. Back in the 20s. These are without a doubt very efficient due to the extremely high temperature of operation.

THRRRUST!
"Ion Powerrh!"
I built a working ion rocket motor for a science fair. :-)
Wish I still had it now. Sigh.
Goddard used schedule 40 black pipe for his vacuum chamber, made a loop that went all the way across the shop floor.
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