SCHEM did you listen to a word i said.. i mean really think about what i said..
here is the faq for Ion Drives nmp.nasa.gov/ds1/tech/ionpropfaq.html
I can provide a bit more technical article if someone is intrested, the main point is
that ion drives are 10times as efficient than chemical propulsion systems, think about
80kg of xenon that lasts for a constant thrust of 20months for a small ship..
Now schem please provide a detailed calculation or similar explaining why you would
burn more fuel than you could carry as cargo in a vessel that travels in VACUUM.
Which means the speed is not really important as you could make the ship Bigger.
If a planet does not have metal, it'd be very much like the moon and unable to keep atmosphere unless it is extremely big. If it is extremely big, it'd be much like Jupiter and would be unhabitable by humans (and plant life, I'd imagine).
Planets can not go to either extreme, in my opinion. You have to have a balance of everything.
I am not talking EXtremes,, you could have a planet that has highly nutrient surface
and not enough heavymetals to encourage large industrial base.. it does not mean the
planet would be devoid of metals and heavymetals but you could make that planet
produce food with "every" squaremile of feasible land and use another planet that has
huge amounts of heavymetals to produce metalworks with all available land and trade
those commodities between them.
READ CAREFULLY and explain why you think this is NEVER going to happen,, and remember
that ion drives are going to get even more efficient when we reach the point of colonizing
another worlds.