It seems like the technology we are looking for to power our trip to Mars is progressing nicely. We seem to have a working ion engine that we are looking to test in space on the ISS.
There are two main advantages of ion engines. One is that they use less fuel, an important fact when each journey requires enough fuel for the round trip making weight precious. Two is that the thrust from an ion engine will make the Mars trip possible in about a month. This, coupled with slightly improved shielding could alleviate the radiation risk which is a big issue for normal space travel which would take about a year.
Ion engines are the next step for engines but we really need FTL drive if we are going to explore the galaxy. Even a super ion engine would take thousands of years to reach the nearest star. No rush though. I think I would like us to test FTL drives out beyond Jupiter or something. Just not on Earth or the Moon.
Sort of a day trip to Jupiter to road test it like?
Well not exactly. I was actually thinking that, just in case, Health and Safety, etc. it would actually be a good idea not to play about with the space time continuum on the surface of the planet we live on.