>>13891443>feasibly move humans around the solar system>Nuclear thermal, various ion drives, nuclear pulse, and normal reaction enginesThis all checks out.
I like Ebrahimi's Alfven-reconnection method of boosting ion-drive ISP but, of course, that's no real help to humans in the inner solar system. Down here we need thrust more than ISP; get into a Hohmann trajectory and chill, seems to be the plan here.
...or use NERVA. On topic . . .
I'd add tritium fusion as NTP 1.5. I can see them figuring out how to direct the neutrons and using better mirrors for the strays. Might be ten years away from having a useful prototype.
Deuterium / Helium-3 is also possible; fewer neutrons to wrangle. If we're willing to make a shitload of tritium and wait the twelve years for half of it to decay.
