Sir Arthur C.B.E. Wholeflaffers A.S.A. wrote:

http://www.FreeRepublic.com/focus/f-news/1026138/posts

First of all, I don't know what you mean by "admit".  NASA has
made no secret that it's been working on ion engines for a
very long time.  I remember writing a college research
paper on the subject more than 20 years ago, using basically
all NASA sources.

BTW, your article doesn't mention anything about
the history of such research, so I'm not sure how
it supports your argument.

No doubt the NASA within NASA had been shuttling
back and forth to Mars since at least the early 1970's.
This would have been the next logical step after
the Apollo program.  Of course NASA went to the
Moon way before the Apollo's, that was all for public consumption.

Before you go making crazy claims, you might want to learn some
physics.  They're talking about working their way *up* to
a 25 kW engine with an exhaust velocity of 60,000 m/s.
By my calculations, that's about .8N of thrust, or enough
to lift about 80 grams at the surface of the earth (including
the weight of the motor itself of course).

Ion engines are many orders away from replacing chemical
engines for getting things into orbit.  Their advantage is
their high efficience and low requirements for fuel mass
when maneuvering craft that are already in space.

None of the achievements to date in any way support your
outrageous assertions.

Perhaps J. O-BORG would like to come clean
and admit to what the research community already knows:
that NASA is 30 to 50 years ahead of what the tell the public.

Yes, NASA has had inter-stellar travel for at least 20 years now, but your not suppose to know that!!

That's right.  NASA is so embarrassed by their success with
interstellar travel that they'd much rather focus on space shuttle
failures.  I know that's what I would do.

I would ask you to do a simple calculation as to how long
it would take a 25 kW engine to get a very small spacecraft
to the nearest star, but I don't think you're up to it.

Are your really stupid and crazy, or just a troll with a weird
sense of humor?

-E

Sir Artio