[Brett66]

Very important technology, NASA needs to look beyond low- Earth orbit.

[StriperSniper]

The government is afraid that if this gets into civilian hands it will be used as a way to escape taxes.

[RightWhale]

Young said JSC experts and others have begun discussing the idea of using VASIMR to shove a 230-foot (70-meter) asteroid around.

That's the ticket.

[Brett66]

Might as well post this VASIMR performance chart:

30 Newtons of thrust at 300 KM/s velocity, that's incredible performance, especially for a first generation design.

[sigSEGV]

Anybody know how this compares to the Hall thruster?
http://w3.pppl.gov/~fisch/fisch_research_hallthruster.html

[LibWhacker]

Six or seven billion dollars every year alone for that utter waste of taxpayer money called Head Start, and a worthy project like this goes wanting? If I were Prez, we'd do a 180 on that in the blink of an eye.

[NormsRevenge]

One VASIMR study hypothesized using a 200-megawatt nuclear power system. The result, he added, showed that 20 metric tons could be delivered to Mars in 39 days.

Great! But will the beer still be fresh?

Beat that Fed Ex, UPS and USPS ;-P

[aSkeptic]

cool! One of the important developments in nuclear arms was the miniturization of the bomb. Wouldn't it be interesting to have a mini reactor with a high output and a keen safety system? Ya ya!

[Frank_Discussion]

I promise that I'm not trying to brag, but I've seen this system up close many times. It truly is as awesome as it sounds, revolution is indeed the word to apply here.

And of all the astronauts I've met, Dr. Chang-Diaz is one of the most sincere and sharp that I have ever been around. He's an all-around competent man, and very level-headed.

If he and his facility ever get appropriate funding, he's the perfect person to push this technology to the top. Knowing this, it's painful to watch the lab sweat out the budget every damn year!