Reply #20: Your teachings cover this quite well, sir.

[txlibdem]

"To see what is right, and not to do it, is want of courage or of principle." -- Confucius

Solar has its uses but to rely on solar power for a spaceship with people in it is not a good idea. As you get farther from the sun you need a larger and larger solar array just to make the same amount of power. And what if one of the panels get hit by debris or a micrometeor?

A nuclear powered spacecraft that uses a Vasimir propulsion system can go anywhere in the solar system because the beauty of the Vasimir is that it runs continously. So if you want to go faster all you need to do is run the Vasimir drive for a longer time and it will keep accelerating (up to its max speed which I don't really know what that even is).

Vasimir:


Another view:
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2009-10/fast-lane-mars

Chang-Diaz says the VASIMIR is ready:
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1006/01vasimr/