Photo Credit: Getty Images
\
Calling all innovators: NASA is looking for out-of-the-box ideas about how to get Martian rocks to Earth in the next 15 years without breaking the bank. The space agency says it can't achieve this top priority before 2040 with the $5 billion to $7 billion in funding currently outlined. It could do it with $11 billion, but that's "too expensive," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Monday, adding he would not allow other space missions to be "cannibalized" by the Mars Sample Return Mission, even if it is, as the BBC reports, "the single most important priority in planetary exploration." NASA could instead opt to delay the mission, but that's not particularly palatable. Waiting until 2040 is "unacceptably too long," Nelson said Monday, asking for input on a better plan.
Link: https://www.newser.com/