My own perception:krenshala wrote:My understanding is that Elon Musk wants to invest in refining existing known good hardware that meets his personal goals, such as taking rockets and making them reusable. If someone developed and built a working, usable thruster - as opposed to a research build that only really good on a test stand - he'd probably be interested.
Elon is fully committed to developing better rockets engines to go to Mars.
He is not interested in some exotic solution may or may not work.
The type of intrapreneur we need for developing a Woodward's idea is one that sees the advantages and the profit of developing that solution.
By the time the developing of a commercial driver is done (even just for keeping satellites in lower orbits or moving them around) Elon would be to Mars and Bezos somewhere behind. And both of them would become early buyers of these devices.
SpaceX has a plan for 4K low orbit satellites. and other in lower orbits. Something useful to keep these satellites up longer would be very profitable for them.