> Can a Ion Thruster ever Match the Thrust of a Chemical Rocket?

In theory, sure, but in practice the VASIMR project is trying to approach that threshold and already has numerous drawbacks.

Haven't heard much out of them lately though, and the power requirements make it pretty impractical.

And that power requirement is always going to be an issue with electric thrusters: objects in LEO have about 32MJ of energy per kilogram vs an object sitting on the earth, and launch to LEO takes about 8 minutes, so you're looking at 67MW per ton (first approximation crude napkin math) with even a 100% efficient ion thruster just to match already existing rockets - and I don't think we have any source of electrical power that gets anywhere near that requirement.

As a cross-check, this post says Falcon 9 is pushing 26GW at launch, and with its ~545 metric ton launch mass, that's 47MW/ton so apparently my napkin is a bit off, but well within an order of magnitude.

Seems like we're gonna be sticking with chemical fuels for a while, and using ions for more sedate in-orbit maneuvers where a small thrust for a long time is just as useful as a lot of thrust for a short time.