The FDR is one of only ten projects to get Stage Two funding from the program. This $600,000 award will provide the proof-of-concept FDR system over the next 18 months, and a working spacecraft would be ready as soon as 2020, Pancokti predicted – but if NASA wanted to throw money at the project, this timescale could be cut.
There's a lot of people on HN who could double that budget without blinking, he hinted.
Reading lutusp post, anyone on HN who got sufficient funds to double the budget, would also have learnt to look very closely at extraordinary claims with only ordinary evidence.
Be nice if it was true, and one day I am sure it will be (I mean the Sun DES this all the time and not even a single Phd was involved)
I'm not saying this FDR is guaranteed to work or be the best idea, but I'm pretty sure lutusp is trolling or something. He is clearly not understanding any of the issues. Repeatedly he talks of needing to create a steady reaction, and talks about needing to meet the same requirements of a fusion electric generator. Neither of these things is proposed by the FDR project. It is pulsed, and it generates only kinetic energy (much like an H-bomb, relatively old and proven technology). Further, he talks of ion thrusters as an alternative, which would take months to get to Mars, whereas this is talking about 30 days.
There's a lot of people on HN who could double that budget without blinking, he hinted.