[noiseman]

"...whether through a breakthrough in compact fusion reactors..."

Oh, is that all? So, all we need is to make fusion reactors work on any scale first, which we still can't do, and then miniaturize them. Things sure are simple in eco-leftist rainbows and unicorns land.

[BobL]

Tell me about it. The amount of power needed by those propulsion systems is astronomical. It’s neat when something like that get invented, but those things are not about to go on airplanes. Maybe some space application, but that’s also daunting.

[AndyJackson]

There is another little problem with this. To be efficient, the plasma pressure needs to be as high as possible. When you try to flow a high pressure plasma through the confining magnetic field, the plasma starts dragging the magnetic field around which deflects the plasma, and the whole thing quenches - burning up your motor if it ever could work.

No need to worry about this though. The same instabilities bedeviling confining the plasma jet also bedevil the hypothesized fusion power plant and so it doesn't work.

There is a proposed solution though - just pour in more taxpayer money.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

This is sort of like the magic 100 mpg carburetor that the government and oil companies kept hidden from us.

[xp38]

I've seen this in action in the movies! :)