Dave M wrote:
What urks me is seeing two urgently needed programs being played off against each other.

Alex writes:
I agree with the bulk of your post. No one, least of all me, is claiming that advanced propulsion technologies are not needed for future space exploration, either human or unmanned. Moreover, IMHO, from a scientific (and long term programmatic) standpoint there is no reason *not* to fly the intial reconnaissance of Pluto-Kuiper Belt with current technology (to meet the 2006 JGA constraint), and then fly the inevitable follow-up mission(s), which will be more in-depth (perhaps orbital) with these promised nuclear technologies. As a comparison, not even NASA claimed that the current planetary exploration program (both inner and outer solar system) relied on, for example, the New Milliennium Program technologies such a DS1 demonstrated, only that future missions *might* benefit (e.g., Dawn, BepiColombo, etc.). Sacrificing (or enabling a gap in) science exploration on the promise of vaporware is most assuredly a way to give R&D engineers a job, but it does come at a cost of sacrificed science knowledge.

Alex R. Blackwell
University of Hawaii