Over the past two years, these two new
means of interplanetary propulsion, have been spotlighted
in space.com, spacedaily.com, msnbc.com/SPACE, and
have been promoted as means of getting humans to Mars
quick!....Who wants to spend 9-12 months [one-way]
to get to Mars, and then wait another two years to return?...I don't think there are that many Ferdinand Magellans around...

OK! The idea of using disintegrating, gaseous Americium isotopes to get you to Mars in a "matter of days or weeks", a theoretical method developed by Israel scientists, has its appeal...But such a propulsion system would render the spacecraft's entire propulsion machinery in question "dangerously radioactive" and unfit for reuse.
That's the main problem!...You need a manned Mars spacecraft, and its propuslion system, that are reusable!...Otherwise, no government, or group of governments, would dare risk the ire of their taxpayers to fund a "throwaway manned Mars spacecraft"...At least the Mothership has to be reusable.

What about VASIMIR?...Great propulsion idea! It can be
reused over and over again! NASA would support it, since it was one of theirs who invented and developed the concept; and it would be capable of sending humans to Mars in three instead of 9-12 months.
It has its drawbacks! It would require a 10-megawatt
powersource or powerplant to keep it functioning. Solarpanels?...Possibly, but I prefer the idea of a 10-20 megawatt compact nuclear-powerplant (whose radioactivity
would be confined to the reactor-space and shielded; and thus can be reused!...

I stand by an earlier suggestion: NASA should, in the future, build a manned Mars spacecraft and its VASIMIR
propulsion system; the French government should build and seperately launch the VASIMIR's 10-20 megawatt nuclear powerplant on an Ariane-5 to be installed on the Mars ship...in LEO...

Why the French?...
Because they are not averse to nuclear powerplants, unlike
the Russians and Americans.

Raoul? With your European perspective, do you agree that
the French would be immune from the sinister influences
of American lawyers and "environmental extremist" threats,
should they decide to build such a space nuclear-powerplant
for a VASIMIR propulsion system as part of a NASA lead
international space project?

Jacob