wants to stop improving the fundamental technology in order to keep funding missions with the limited systems we have today. Sorry, but I disagree. That's like eating your seed corn - good in the short term but bad in the long term. We might as well have standardized automotive technology at the Model T or airline technology at the DC-3. Why bother to improve things if the current technology is "good enough", especially if it means we might have to wait a few more years before flying a particular mission?

The new propulsion technology will do far more to open up the outer planets than simply flying the PKE mission with the existing technology. I believe we need to improve the way we fly deep space missions so they won't take 10-15 years to reach their destination, only to fly by the target in a matter of minutes or hours.