Ed Lu's latest letter on space propulsion

In article nk.net,
"Terrence Daniels" wrote:

URL:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/...terlatest.html

"The combination of a nuclear reactor plus a plasma engine could provide a
delta V capability of 30 to 100 thousand MPH. This is plenty for exploring
the solar system."

Is he on-target with this idea? Granted he's talking about The Future, but I
thought ion engines were a low-power, slow & steady sort of propulsion
system. What about delivering high instantaneous thrust, like when a ship
"burns" for getting into & out of orbit?



Ion engines are low thrust and do not use transfer elipses to change
orbits. They use powered trajectories and spital orbits. Works very
well on long term thrust.

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