NASA Jellyfish UFOs and Anomolies 2013 1080p HD (Full HD)
Another small collection of weird anomolies from the NASA archives and various other sources. Could space be filled with living critters just like our oceans...
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NASA Jellyfish UFOs and Anomolies 2013 1080p HD (Full HD) - Video
NASA Now Minute: Engineering Design: Tilt Rotors, Aircraft of the Future
Meet Carl Russell, a research aerospace engineer who is working on developing new innovations for air travel. Russell discusses how tilt rotors work, includi...
By: NASAExplorerSchools1
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NASA Now Minute: Engineering Design: Tilt Rotors, Aircraft of the Future - Video
NASA | Swift #39;s Christmas Burst From Blue Supergiant Star Explosion
Gamma-ray bursts, or GRBs, are the most luminous and mysterious explosions in the universe. The blasts emit surges of gamma rays -- the most powerful form of...
By: NASAexplorer
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NASA | Swift's Christmas Burst From Blue Supergiant Star Explosion - Video
NASA
This artist's concept shows NASA's Space Launch System atop its Florida launch pad.
By Clara Moskowitz Space.com
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. The development of NASA's biggest, most powerful rocket yet is running ahead of schedule and on budget, its primary contractor said last Wednesday.
The toweringSpace Launch System(SLS)is a 384-foot (117 meters) behemoth intended to launch astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit to deep-space asteroids and Mars. The vehicle is slated to make its first test flight in 2017, when it will launch an unmanned Orion capsule(also in development) beyond the moon. The first manned flight is pegged for 2021.
So far, NASA and The Boeing Co., which has been contracted to build the rocket's core stage, are on track to meet that date, officials said. [Photos: NASA's Giant Rocket for Deep Space Flights]
"We're on budget, ahead of schedule," John Elbon, Boeing's vice president and general manager of space exploration, told reporters here at the 29thannual National Space Symposium. "There's incredible progress going on with that rocket."
At the end of December 2012 five months ahead of schedule the team passed a milestone called preliminary design review, which certified that the rocket design meets its requirements within acceptable risk parameters. Its final technical review, called critical design review, is scheduled for 2014.
The booster, in its initial configuration, uses solid rocket boosters based on the space shuttle's design, with an upper stage taken from United Launch Alliance's well-tried Delta 4 rocket.
"The whole theory of it was to use existing hardware so we could design something relatively low-risk and get a capability soon," Elbon said.
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NASA
This artist's concept shows NASA's Space Launch System atop its Florida launch pad.
By Clara Moskowitz Space.com
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. The development of NASA's biggest, most powerful rocket yet is running ahead of schedule and on budget, its primary contractor said last Wednesday.
The toweringSpace Launch System(SLS)is a 384-foot (117 meters) behemoth intended to launch astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit to deep-space asteroids and Mars. The vehicle is slated to make its first test flight in 2017, when it will launch an unmanned Orion capsule(also in development) beyond the moon. The first manned flight is pegged for 2021.
So far, NASA and The Boeing Co., which has been contracted to build the rocket's core stage, are on track to meet that date, officials said. [Photos: NASA's Giant Rocket for Deep Space Flights]
"We're on budget, ahead of schedule," John Elbon, Boeing's vice president and general manager of space exploration, told reporters here at the 29thannual National Space Symposium. "There's incredible progress going on with that rocket."
At the end of December 2012 five months ahead of schedule the team passed a milestone called preliminary design review, which certified that the rocket design meets its requirements within acceptable risk parameters. Its final technical review, called critical design review, is scheduled for 2014.
The booster, in its initial configuration, uses solid rocket boosters based on the space shuttle's design, with an upper stage taken from United Launch Alliance's well-tried Delta 4 rocket.
"The whole theory of it was to use existing hardware so we could design something relatively low-risk and get a capability soon," Elbon said.
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NASA is bringing together scientists, entrepreneurs, and creative thinkers from all over the world for its second annual International Space Apps Challenge on April 20 and 21. Thousands are expected to meet up in person or virtually to collaborate on open-source solutions for Earth and space.
Thousands within the tech and space community from all over the world will meet up this weekend to create technological advancements to benefit life on Earth and in space.
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NASA is hosting its second annual International Space Apps Challenge on April 20 and 21. The challenge will draw people from all seven continents as well as from space, according to the NASA website. There will be participants meeting at 50 local events and many others participating virtually.
The challenge has more than doubled in size since last year's event, which a NASApress releasesays had2,000 participants.
There are 50 challenges participants can choose from in the 2013 event: 25 devised by NASA, and the other 25 suggested by the challenge's partners. Participants develop solutions in one of the four categories: software, hardware, data visualization, and citizen science. Nick Skytland, program manager for NASA's Open Innovation Program says part of what makes it interesting is the scale of the challenge.
I firmly believe that NASAs greatest potential will never be reached unless we reach people outside of our organization, Mr. Skytlandsays.
The challenge brings the kind of diversity and talent that NASA needs, he says. They have brought together Sillicon Valley developers, rocket scientists, and 16-year-olds like Sam Wilkinson, who last year developed space bread.
Skytland says he was surprised by the high quality of the results in the first year.
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WASHINGTON, April 17 (UPI) -- NASA is seeking proposals for sub-orbital technology payloads, vehicle enhancements, onboard facilities and small spacecraft propulsion technologies.
The organization's Space Technology Mission Directorate said the technologies selected would eventually be flown to the edge of space and back aboard commercial sub-orbital vehicles for advanced testing before their enhancement or use in space.
"Investing in transformative technology development is critical to enable NASA's future missions and benefits the greater American aerospace community," said James Reuther, deputy associate administrator for programs in NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate.
"NASA Space Tech's Game Changing Development and Flight Opportunities Programs are working with our partners from America's emerging sub-orbital flight community to foster frequent and predictable commercial access to near-space while allowing for cutting-edge technology development."
Proposals, from U.S. or non-U.S. organizations, are due by June 17. The agency is expected to make as many as 18 awards this summer. The amount of the awards will generally range $50,000-$250,000, the agency said.
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PALO ALTO, Calif., April 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Scientists will soon gain a better view into energy and plasma movement near the surface of the sun, thanks to delivery of the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) spacecraft to Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. in preparation for launch.
Part of NASA's Small Explorer (SMEX) Mission, which delivers space exploration missions costing less than $120 million, IRIS was designed and built at Lockheed Martin's [NYSE: LMT] Space Systems Company Advanced Technology Center (ATC) in Palo Alto, Calif. The program was developed with support from Lockheed Martin's Civil Space line of business as well as partners Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Montana State University, Stanford University and the University of Oslo. The launch of IRIS will not take place before May 28.
"The entire IRIS team is enormously pleased that we've reached this crucial milestone," said Gary Kushner, Lockheed Martin IRIS program manager. "After many months of hard work by the Lockheed Martin team and all of our collaborators and subcontractors in designing, engineering, building and testing the instrument and integrated spacecraft, our goal of putting it into orbit is in sight and we look forward to producing great science at a low cost."
"The IRIS spacecraft and instrument are emblematic of the wide range of capabilities that Lockheed Martin brings to the exploration and utilization of space," said Dr. Kenneth Washington, vice president of the ATC. "The IRIS solar telescope is the latest in a five decade heritage of sensing payloads which, cumulatively, have operated for over 800 years in space. Moreover, our small satellite capabilities have supported multiple successful missions including IKONOS, Lunar Prospector, IMAGE, and now IRIS."
NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., is responsible for mission operations and the ground data system. The Norwegian Space Agency will capture the IRIS data with their antennas in Svalbard, inside the Arctic Circle in northern Norway. The science data will be managed by the Joint Science Operations Center of the Solar Dynamics Observatory, run by Stanford and Lockheed Martin. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., oversees the SMEX project.
The goal of the IRIS program is to better understand how energy and plasma move from a lower layer of the sun's surface called the photosphere, through the chromosphere layer and to the outer corona layer. Observation into this movement has been a fundamental challenge in solar and heliospheric science, and the IRIS mission will open a window of discovery into this crucial region by providing observations necessary to pinpoint physical forces at work in this little understood piece of real estate near the surface of the Sun.
"The interpretation of the IRIS spectra is a major effort coordinated by the IRIS Science Team that will utilize the full extent of the power of the most advanced computational resources in the world. It is this new capability, along with development of state of the art codes and numerical models by the University of Oslo that capture the complexities of this region, which make the IRIS mission possible. Without these important elements we would be unable to fully interpret the IRIS spectra," said Dr. Alan Title, IRIS principal investigator and physicist at the ATC Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory in Palo Alto. "With IRIS, we have a unique opportunity to provide significant missing pieces in our understanding of energy transport on the Sun. The complex processes and enormous contrasts of density, temperature and magnetic field within this interface region require instrument and modeling capabilities that are now finally within our reach."
The IRIS observatory will fly in a Sun-synchronous polar orbit for continuous solar observations on a two-year mission. It will obtain ultraviolet spectra and high resolution images focused on the chromosphere and the transition region to the outer corona. Spectra will cover temperatures from 4,500 K to 107 K, with images covering temperatures from 4,500 to 65,000 K.
The NASA SMEX Program is designed to provide frequent, low-cost access to space for heliophysics and astrophysics missions using small to mid-sized spacecraft. The program also seeks to raise public awareness of NASA's space science missions through educational and public outreach activities.
The ATC is the research and development organization of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company (LMSSC) and creates the technology foundation for the company's business. In addition, the ATC conducts research into understanding and predicting space weather and the behavior of our Sun, including its impacts on Earth and climate. It has a five-decade-long heritage of spaceborne instruments.
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NASA's Newest Solar Mission Spacecraft Delivered To Launch Site
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. The development of NASA's biggest, most powerful rocket yet is running ahead of schedule and on budget, its primary contractor said Wednesday (April 10).
The toweringSpace Launch System(SLS)is a 384-foot (117 meters) behemoth intended to launch astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit to deep-space asteroids and Mars. The vehicle is slated to make its first test flight in 2017, when it will launch an unmanned Orion capsule(also in development) beyond the moon. The first manned flight is pegged for 2021.
So far, NASA and The Boeing Co., which has been contracted to build the rocket's core stage, are on track to meet that date, officials said. [Photos: NASA's Giant Rocket for Deep Space Flights]
"We're on budget, ahead of schedule," John Elbon, Boeing's vice president and general manager of space exploration, told reporters here at the 29th annual National Space Symposium. "There's incredible progress going on with that rocket."
At the end of December 2012 five months ahead of schedule the team passed a milestone called preliminary design review, which certified that the rocket design meets its requirements within acceptable risk parameters. Its final technical review, called critical design review, is scheduled for 2014.
The booster, in its initial configuration, uses solid rocket boosters based on the space shuttle's design, with an upper stage taken from United Launch Alliance's well-tried Delta 4 rocket.
"The whole theory of it was to use existing hardware so we could design something relatively low-risk and get a capability soon," Elbon said.
Eventually, the SLS will have to be outfitted to carry heavier loads than its initial configuration can lift. It must carry the crew and equipment needed for a mission to Mars which will be a multistep, complex operation. What those steps will be, exactly, is yet to be settled by NASA.
"The exploration program hasnt been crisply defined," Elbon said. "The real focus has been on developing capabilities. I think, personally, it would be helpful if we had a mission that was clearly defined that would allow us to take these capabilities to tailor them, define them, shape them for that mission."
Yet there's a benefit in developing SLS as a multipurpose vehicle designed to carry out more than a single mission.
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President Obama said 3D printing "has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything." So why not start with NASA? CNET's Sumi Das visits NASA Ames to look at how they're making space parts from 3D-printing machines.
The program is still in its nascent stages. But NASA sees potential in the technology because it enables designers and engineers to get the manufacturing information early in the design process and can add value early on. "We want to get the young engineers, designers, and implementers of our space and aerospace missions to come in with their ideas today and their thoughts on how they're going to build something and try it out," Korsmeyer said.
The tools and process at NASA in many ways mirror any TechShop workshops you might see around the nation. Engineers are able to design and then print out various 3D components. Korsmeyer said, "There's a a laser cutter for sheet metal and wood that allows us to cut very complex geometric shapes in very high precision, so it can all fit together in a very high-tech fashion."
CNET recently visited NASA Ames to get an inside look.
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A NASA moon probe equippd with plastic that mimics living tissue is helping researchers learn how deep-space radiation may affect astronauts and electronics on future missions, researchers say.
These findings could lead to the development of leaner, more efficient spacecraft that are better at balancing radiation protection against weight, scientists added.
Potentially dangerous radiation pervades outer space, such as electrically charged particles from the sun and high-mass, high-energy cosmic rays known as HZE particles that emerge from deep space. Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field block about 99.9 percent of this radiation, protecting those of us on the planet's surface. [Stunning Photos of Solar Flares & Sun Storms]
"The atmosphere serves as just a big thick shield the weight exerted by the atmosphere is equivalent to a column of mercury about 30 inches (76 centimeters) high, so you can think of the atmosphere as a huge slab of dense metal a yard thick,"study lead author Mark Looper, a space radiation physicist at The Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, Calif., told SPACE.com. "The magnetic field, in addition, shunts aside most of the radiation from Earth's surface."
To find out more about radiation hazards in space, Looper and his colleagues are relying on the Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation instrument (CRaTER) aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been zipping around the moon at an altitude of about 30 miles (50 kilometers) since 2009.
CRaTER aims to measure not only radiation near the moon, but also the effects radiation has on sensitive materials such as human tissue or electronic parts that might absorb it behind shielding. The instrument uses sensors behind blocks of plastic designed to mimic the muscle tissue over a person's radiation-sensitive bone marrow.
"We've never had such tissue-equivalent plastics as part of a complex sensor in space before," Looper said.
The researchers found that although HZE particles only make up 1 percent or so of the radiation the telescope saw, "they made up close to half of the energy deposited by radiation," Looper said. "You get much more energy deposited by these heavies."
By looking with precision at the range of energies deposited by various sources of radiation, scientists can estimate the effects they might have. "It's like the difference between being hit with a bat or a bullet different kinds of radiation may deposit the same amount of energy, but they distribute it differently," Looper said.
Altogether, these findings could help researchers optimize just how much shielding spacecraft need without making them too heavy for missions.
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NASA has a new "stage" to expose and educate the public about the work behind and on board the International Space Station.
More than a year in the making, NASA and Space Center Houston, the visitor center for the agency's Johnson Space Center in Texas, put the final touches on a new interactive exhibit and special effects live stage show that highlights how the orbiting outpost came to be, what life is like on board and how it is being used to conduct science.
The 3000-square-foot (280 square meters) display was inspired by NASA's traveling exhibit "Destination Station" (hosted currently at Atlanta's Fernbank Science Center until May 18). But instead of simply recreating the mobile exhibition, NASA's International Space Station Program worked with the external relations office at Johnson and Space Center Houston to enhance and expand the display into a brand-new experience for guests. [Building the International Space Station (Photos)]
"This [new] exhibition highlights, through the use of a live performance, static graphic elements, hardware, astronaut personal effects, video content and interactive software programs, the international partnership which assembled this orbiting laboratory, its human presence which works and lives on board, and the complex research and science that is taking place which benefits all humankind," NASA wrote about the exhibit.
Destination Station 2.0
Space Center Houston began building the exhibit about a year ago by reconfiguring the International Space Station or rather a large detailed model of the orbiting complex.
Suspended from the ceiling, the scale model was updated to reflect the final assembly of the space station, including removing a once-docked replica of the now-retired space shuttle. The model was then re-hung in front of a mural of the Earth, placing it into the context of the new display.
Underneath the not-so-miniature station is a new mockup of a Mission Control console. Nearby, one of the canisters used to transport the orbiting laboratory's power-providing solar arrays is also on display with a sample strip of the cells used to generate electricity for the station.
The Mission Control monitors display the "Space Station Live!" website, which provides access to live data from the real space station as received through the real Mission Control, located nearby at the Johnson Space Center. Not only can visitors use the replica console to learn what the astronauts and cosmonauts on board the station are doing in space in real time, but they can find when the orbiting complex can be seen flying over their homes.
Venturing further into the exhibit, guests can see a training mockup of the space station's multi-window Cupola, a full-size model of the outpost's robotic resident Robonaut 2, and look inside both a crew member's living quarters and the onboard waste containment system, or toilet.
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Space Station Lands in Houston in State-of-the-Art NASA Exhibit
Comet ISON C2012 S1 WTF NASA? Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/thornews After 2 weeks of asking NASA to put one of their big old fancy cameras on Comet Ison. They have not granted my request. The news on ...
By: thornews
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Obama Proposes NASA Budget For 2014 and Beyond | Video
President Obama #39;s Fiscal Year 2014 budget sets the road map for exploration for NASA and the American people. Its now up to congress to approve it.
By: VideoFromSpace
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Obama Proposes NASA Budget For 2014 and Beyond | Video - Video
Orbital Sciences / COTS / CRS / NASA Commercial Space Program
Orbital Sciences philosophy and overview with respect to the COTS Program. Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Credit: NASA / Orbital Sciences ...
By: ThunderAerospace
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Orbital Sciences / COTS / CRS / NASA Commercial Space Program - Video
HOW NASA INTENDS TO LASSO THE MOON? KEEP ROLLIN #39;
SKYVIEWS HOW NASA INTENDS TO CAPTURE AN ASTEROID (report below) SORTA KINDA MAYBE (full screen recommended) Earlier today (April 10, 2013), President Obama a...
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NASA working on asteroid capture project
April 12 - Obama administration hopes to jump-start space plans to use an asteroid as a stepping stone to Mars. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).
By: ReutersVideo
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -
Three years after President Barack Obama directed NASA to send astronauts to an asteroid by 2025, NASA is making phenomenal progress toward that goal, agency officials said on Monday. Whats more, NASA is thrilled with the prospect of moving up that goal by four years as proposed in the 2014 budget delivered to Congress by the White House last week, officials said.
We have lots of work ahead of us on that challenging and complex mission, said Dan Dumbacher, NASAs deputy associate administrator for exploration system development. But NASA is up to the challenge and the team you see here is ready to take it on.
Local 6 News partner Florida Today reports that Dumbacher and other NASA officials gathered at Kennedy Space Center in the same building where Obama issued the 2025 asteroid challenge three years ago Monday.
KSC Director Robert Cabana, a former astronaut, noted that the building, an empty high bay in April 2010, is now a fully operations production facility for NASAs Orion crew exploration vehicle. Built by Lockheed Martin, the Orion spacecraft will ferry astronauts on missions to asteroids and other destinations beyond Earth orbit.
Obamas 2014 budget includes a proposal to lasso an asteroid with a robotic spacecraft and tow it back to an orbit on the far side of the moon. Astronauts on the first piloted Orion spaceflight in 2021 then would rendezvous with the ancient space rock and return samples to Earth.
The first test flight of an Orion spacecraft is scheduled to launch in September 2014 on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket at Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The spacecraft, which is being assembled in the production facility, will fly loops around Earth at an altitude of 3,600 miles and then reenter the atmosphere at a velocity that will simulate a return from an asteroid, the moon or Mars.
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WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. - On one of Virginia's small barrier islands, a NASA facility that operates in relative obscurity outside scientific circles is preparing to be thrust into the spotlight.
On Wednesday, Orbital Sciences Corp. plans to conduct the first test launch of its Antares rocket under a NASA program in which private companies deliver supplies to the International Space Station. If all goes as planned, the unmanned rocket's practice payload will be vaulted into orbit from Wallops Island before burning up in the atmosphere on its return to Earth several months later.
The goal of the launch isn't to connect with the space station, but to make sure the rocket works and that a simulated version of a cargo ship that will dock with space station on future launches separates into orbit. Orbital officials say that should occur about 10 minutes after liftoff.
In that short period of time, Wallops Island will transition from a little-known launch pad for small research rockets to a major player in the U.S. space program.
The Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's rural Eastern Shore is small in comparison to major NASA centres like those in Florida, California and Texas. The site is near Maryland and just south of Chincoteague Island, which attracts thousands of tourists each summer for an annual wild pony swim made famous by the 1947 novel "Misty of Chincoteague." The Eastern Shore is dominated by forests and farmland, and Wallops Island's isolated nature, with marshland to its west and the Atlantic Ocean to its east, has also made it home to a Navy surface warfare combat centre.
Those who work at Wallops Island joke that even people living on the Eastern Shore are surprised to learn about rocket launches there.
In fact, more than 16,000 rockets have been launched from Wallops Island since 1945, but none has drawn the attention of Antares. Most of the launches are suborbital and focus on educational and research programs.
"The real transformation here at Wallops is we've always been kind of a research facility," said William Wrobel, the facility's director. "So this transition is really kind of into an operational phase, where we're going to be doing kind of regular flights out of here to the space station."
A successful launch would pave the way for Dulles-based Orbital to demonstrate that it can connect its unmanned Cygnus cargo ship with the space station this summer. If that's successful, Orbital would launch the first of eight resupply missions from the island in the fall under a $1.9 billion NASA contract.
Orbital has been in the commercial space business for more than 30 years, producing small satellites and rockets for NASA and the military. Antares marks the company's first venture in medium-size rockets, which can carry twice as much of a payload as other rockets it produces.
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NASA's Wallops Island facility in Va. prepares for the spotlight with Antares rocket launch
NASA
Not so parched? The dry-looking lunar landscape as seen by the Apollo astronauts.
By Irene KlotzDiscovery News
NASA is developing a lunar rover to find and analyze water and other materials trapped in deep freezes at the moons poles and to demonstrate how water can be made on site.
Slated to fly in November 2017, the mission, called Regolith and Environment Science and Oxygen and Lunar Volatile Extraction (RESOLVE), will have a week to accomplish its goals.
To stay within a tight $250 million budget cap -- including the rocket ride to the moon -- project managers are planning to use solar energy to power the rovers systems and science instruments. However, sunlight on the places where water and other volatiles may be trapped only occurs for a few days at a time.
NEWS: Probe Finds Moon's Shackleton Crater Pretty Dry
To do a mission of any significance (at the lunar poles) it would take nuclear power, but we dont have that kind of money, said William Larson, a recently retired project manager at NASAs Kennedy Space Center.
Solar-powered missions are more affordable and thats the way were going to try to go, Larson said.
That leaves scientists with along to-do list and a very tight timeline.
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