A twofold increase in unit efficiency means that the speed previously requiring two portions of fuel to achieve now only requires one portion.
If calculated with nuclear fission fuel, namely uranium-235 or plutonium-239, this improvement is not much; it is merely a reduction from 200 kg to 100 kg, a difference of a mere 100 kg, which is not significant.
However, for chemical fuels, the improvement is enormous.
This means a reduction from 10 tons to 5 tons, or even from 20 tons to 10 tons!
A full 5 tons or even 10 tons of fuel saved—how much more ammunition can be carried? Or, even if not reduced, if the original amount of fuel is still carried, how much will the cruising range increase?
However, even with such a massive improvement, Tom was still somewhat dissatisfied.
The reason is simple: the mass of the existing miniaturized nuclear fission propulsion module is still too great.
Over two hundred tons of mass!
