Yes there is a big difference–different approaches were used to obtain these predictions. We are basing ours on what we think is a quantitative theoretical understanding of the DPF and how to improve its performance. Dr. Brzosko’s are based more on an extropolation of past performance, without an attempt to use a detailed quantitative theory. For example, I can tell from his graphs that he is assuming an average ion energy of around 60 keV. But we hope to reach 600 keV, with a 50 times higher reaction rate.
In short we think we know how to improve the DPF performance by a large amount. Our experiments will test if we are right.
