1 million amps?
blobs of ionised hydrogen plasma?
Where do these come from?

Not a convincing argument that fusion is required for a manned Mars trip.
Also, not a convincing fusion rocket engine design, and it appears to require a small nuclear fission reactor to supply the electricity to run it. But at least the company has built actual hardware and this is not entirely a computer graphics fantasy.

Sounds like a higher-tech version of the Orion nuclear pulse rocket design from the late 1950's - 60's that Freeman Dyson worked on.

still need HLLVs to boost atomic rocket into Orbit for assembly alone. & need to expand ISS for role or add other Orbital Hub Be radical to get to Mars in months vs years, radical.

I doubt that the solar panels in the illustration would provide enough power to make this work. for deep space operations you need to have a high yield radiation shield to protect against solar flares putting a fission reactor on the sunward side of the shield is not a problem.

I worked on a project at Lockheed Sunnyvale in the early 60's called RIFT Reactor In Flight Test nuch different that this, Very Interestion

Whether this machine proves viable or not, it or others like it will make our solar system seem much smaller and more reachable. I agree with MBadgero. This technology is not essential to make it to Mars. We already have technology that can do that, but research like this is good and the potential of cutting travel time in half or better is nothing to dismiss lightly. I hope they make enough progress to keep the funding going so that they can make a practical machine. It seems like a solid concept. We have a hard time keeping fusion reactions contained in our stationary fusion reactor labs but we don't need to contain them with a fusion propulsion engine. What was a problem becomes something wonderful: THRUST!!

Mars Mars mars, blah blah blah.
The resources we need are on the Moon, not Mars. Everyone is in some sort of hurry, and wants to skip the logical step.
That error will cost us dearly.

#Dick Doeren - Did you mean "not much different"? Looks like you're no longer with Lockheed; can you tell us more about the old program? I don't remember it, myself.

Ion engines work now??? just use a nuke power source!