[sigSEGV]

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

[Brett66]

The Hall thrusters offer specific impulses in the 2000-3000 range with thrusts in the .25 Newton range, power consumption is around 5Kw. High power VASIMR designs will use up to 200 Mw of power while providing,at the upper range of performance, specific impulses of up to 30,000. Thrust should be in the thirty Newton range or 120 times that of a typical ion engine. It's output can also be varied, sacrificing specific impulse for larger amounts of thrust. Revolution is a good word to use when describing this system.