> A human mission to Mars might need 2 to 4 megawatts of power

That’s 15x to 30x more than the ISS’s solar panels produce at their peak [1]. It’s 100x to 200x more power than the most-powerful reactors we plan to put in space before 2030 [2]. And that’s coming out of the nozzles—you have to put even more power in to account for losses.

This reminds me of Zubrin’s takedown of the VASIMIR hoax: “electrical propulsion…is limited by electrical power, which comes at a premium in space” [3].

Electric is great for deep space. Until we have big power plants in space, it’s a distraction for manned spaceflight.

[1] https://www.dsneg.com/info/a-comparison-between-the-photovol...

[2] https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2026/04/four-times-the-ion-dri...

[3] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=myYs4DCCZts&pp=ygULVmFzaW1yIGh...