ToughSF is talking up Florida man Herbert Wertheim Wave Rotor Enhanced Nuclear... Propulsion. They've silenced the P so - WREN for short (powerpoint). I don't suppose he'd like to be called HerbeWert.
Wertheim offers 444 W/kg electric cycle, 1920 W/kg thermal cycle
, Isp 1430 (N/N)s (thermal exhaust 1420s
per ToughSF). Its propulsion is indeed bimodal, with the thermal side being good ol' NERVA. Otherwise it is nuclear-electric, when the Isp rises to 3000 with accompanying dip in thrust.
It's being earmarked as a 45 day trip to Mars in microgravity. Afterwhich I guess the Martians have to stay there.
Although the tech is ToughSF-approved, I approve it only as a ferry (and can't we find closer targets?). I repeat - assuming we want Mars at all - we should be setting a permanent spinning station on Deimos. With that set up, by robots, we humans can get spun back to good ol' 9.8 m/s2.
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