for someone who worked in this area, you have an unbelievably short term view.
humanity either has fusion reactors or it doesn't. imagine what we can do with them, the spacecraft we can build, submarine cities, one in every home. Mars, Europa. It's not where we'll be 10 years after we do it, but 100 years, 500 years. To get there, we've got to step forward now.
DT fusion reactors are useless for spacecraft. They don't do anything that fission reactors couldn't do better, more cheaply, and much more compactly.
Open Brayton cycle fission reactors would be outstanding on Titan, with all that cold gas to compress and reexpand after warming to quite moderate temperature.
humanity either has fusion reactors or it doesn't. imagine what we can do with them, the spacecraft we can build, submarine cities, one in every home. Mars, Europa. It's not where we'll be 10 years after we do it, but 100 years, 500 years. To get there, we've got to step forward now.