https://phys.org/news/2018-09-optical-rocket-intense-laser.html
They mention this more in connection with wakefield acceleration, which has been an exciting idea for over a decade now. Wakefield acceleration would possibly allow us to explore the strong nuclear force unification energies. For the longest time, the electroweak unification energies confirmed in the early 1980s was the greatest particle physics accomplishment. Particle physics couldn't do much more confirming of the standard model of physics till the confirmation of the Higgs a few years ago.
I should explain some more. There's a kind of correspondence between unification physics and cosmology. The four fundamental forces must have beeen unified back in Big Bang times. The four fundamental forces get unified only at energies of the Big Bang. But, after the electro-weak unification, there's a big jump of energies needed to unify the electomagnetic and weak nuclear forces with the strong nuclear force. The wakefield acceleration could accomplish that.
That's pretty much what this article is getting at; but, I'm surprised they didn't suggest a vast generalisation beyond the Vasimir rocket engine. The Vasimir rocket engine is a nuclear powered plasma rocket. It can probably make the trip to Mars in a few weeks, and even open up the rest of the solar system. The Vasimir rocket engine has made good progress. This wakefield acceleration could be even more powerful!
I also remember getting a tweet a few months back from a SpaceX person who said that SpaceX and the Vasimir team are in talks with one another. As soon as the Vasimir rocket engine is ready, you can be sure that they'll team up to make the Mars missions happen!
