Ignoring the fact that natural nuclear reactors exist, a nuclear reactor was based off previously existing science that showed that it was possible to transmute one element to another because a physical experiment existed that did just that.
The idea of a single indivisble piece of matter was around for a while, since the greeks actually, and it was Dalton that formed atomic theory of matter in the 1800's. Also fission reactors never had a problem of scale, shown by the fact that fission reactors exist naturally on earth time scales. Also nuclear reactons happen ALL THE TIME in real life, stuff decays and changes. That's nuclear reactions happening constantly.
The science for exotic matters and warp effects exists PURELY at a theoretical level. Nuclear Reactors were based on physical experiments that eventally were understood theoretically. And really "Open your mind?" That's a dumb argument. Haing an open mind doesn't mean blindly accepting the hypotheticals of the first scientists to come around and say they can do something.
My response is "Learn some goddamn critical thinking skills". Science isn't done by just saying "ITS ALL POSSIBLE" and blindly accepting it, its done by trying to rip apart every claim that comes its way because otherwise, you just get junk data and junk experiemnts. Shit like cold fusion has been worked on for years, and we still haven't even gotten close to achieving it, even through many people ahve claimed they got it. For people who claim to "love" science, you have a very pathetic understanding of how it works.
So... I see you're not following. Please keep up with the tour group, it's quite important you don't get left behind.
They are performing small experiments that will quite likely lead to a solid knowledge of "this is possible with xxxxx energy" or "this is not possible at all, not with this tech at least". They are creating results, and are attempting to learn from those results.
We cannot ask for anything more, and we should NEVER prevent that. Do remember that NASA's budget is a pittance (they get the inflation rate* from the federal budget. yay them! much moneys, so amaze! :\), and then the budget for this propulsion research is even tinier.
What other kind of research should NASA be doing, exactly? This sounds exactly like what I want our federal-sponsored astrophysicists and engineers to work on.
Also - the research pointed out in this very thread has been repeatedly cited to likely result in not needing any "exotic matter."
So why, in this same thread, do people continue to debate the very concept of this science because "duh! exotic matter doesn't exist, or we'd have found it by now! This can't work without exotic matter!"... and yet, the very science being done is to prove (or disprove) that exact statement: can it be done with what we have?
It's like people want to argue against science merely for the sake of arguing against science. Do we want progress or not? Do we complete the experiments that we can, even if the hunch is a result that confirms what we already know? Or do we just refuse to carry out experiments, because it's all entirely pointless and we'll never do anything and we're stuck on this rock forever?
I mean, holy shit, let's at least let our good scientists try. We already have them completely underfunded, so it's not like we are wasting money investigating these measures. Our government wastes more money on real bullshit than NASA can ever dream of receiving.
Also: they've been consistently proving that fusion is within reach. Have you refused to read any news coverage of the various fusion research projects, especially at the National Ignition Facility at LLNL? They are making tremendous progress, when all facts are considered. It's not moving at the pace of fission research during the Manhattan Project days, but fusion is a little more involved due to certain physical realities.
They've also made significant strides at the JET facility, and have been, of late, mostly conducting experiments that are confirming that the ITER and future DEMO reactors are indeed the correct direction to go for practical fusion energy production.
edit:
* They don't even get the inflation rate. The NASA budget, expressed as a percentage of the federal budget, is roughly 0.5%. Inflation has varied between 1%-2% and higher.