A proposed helicopter could triple the distances that Mars rovers can drive in a Martian day. (credit: NASA)
Imagine a tissue-box sized device, with blades a few feet long, whirring to life after charging for a full Sol on Mars. It then flies ahead of a rover to search for hazards and targets of interest. Deeper in the solar system, on Europa, a large spacecraft lands near a fissure and drops small probes into the ocean far below. Beyond the Moon, a telescope with a specially fitted shade images an Earth-like exoplanet for the first time, possibly finding chemical markers of life. Finally, in a few decades, powered by hitherto undreamed-of propulsion, a spacecraft takes off for Alpha Centauri at a significant fraction of the speed of light.
It all sounds like science fiction, but a new budget for NASA proposed by the US House of Representatives includes seed money for all of these initiatives, some of which are receiving funding for the first time. The budget must still be reconciled with that of the Senate, but the House and Senate committees have worked well in the past to finalize NASA’s funding. Most of these concepts should therefore survive.
Ars caught up with the author of this budget Monday evening, John Culberson, a Texas Republican who represents one of the most conservative districts in the conservative state of Texas. He’s a proud member of the Tea Party and would like nothing more than to tear up Obamacare. But Culberson is also a science geek through and through, and while he’d like to cut the federal budget, he’d just as soon plough those savings into NASA to fuel new innovations.
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