[Frank_Discussion]

Oh, certainly fission. That's the baseline source of power for running the VASIMR drive, so, yeah, I'm not suggesting that we wait. Three months to Mars for the crews, six to nine months for many metric tons of cargo. Plus, it allows you the ability to abort and return to Earth pretty much anytime you need to. VASIMR with fission power is nothing to sneeze at.

But fusion gives near-chemical-rocket-level thrust, and is a very sustainable source of power. The timescale for the manned mars transit drops to a month or less. Get to the Moon in a day or so, with a lot of cargo and living space to the lunar surface. It's a big advance that would change a lot about how we get around in space.

[Brett66]

It would seem the VASIMR would lend itself towards reusability as well. We could build true "ships" that could be used many times with this as the propulsion source.

[Threepwood]

When I read things like this, it makes me wish I'd worked harder at my maths and sciences. Ion engines! Spaceflight! Trips to mars!Wonderful stuff.

As an aside, does anyone here know why we can't use atomic explosions to move things along in space? Seems to me that space is already fulla radiation, and the blast would really get things moving. Is it against the law or would the ship be blown up too?