JPL’s New Director on SpaceX’s Mars Shot

"I think it's great they are trying for it, and I wish them the best of success. That's the kind of thing they need to do: You learn from trying, from doing. They may be successful, but they will also definitely learn from their failures. And if they are successful and develop new capabilities we are happy use what they learn for our missions as well. NASA has partnered with Lockheed Martin, Ball Aerospace, Orbital Sciences and others for the last decade and longer. They have helped us develop cost-effective technology and satellites. We at JPL focus on technologies that have no business case yet. We build prototypes, and we're always trying to push the state of the art forward. As soon as a business case is available we move on to what is next."