| Kirameo said: It seems like an interesting concept, but I really doubt it will happen anytime soon. |
It depends really, NASA's budget has come under a lot of fire recently. The project hasn't been authorised as of yet, so if they want to try and justify it enough for NASA to give it the green light they have to...
A. Show that the cost split year by year until 2023 when they get the first information back would be relatively little (I figure $35m a year, not very much for NASA).
B. Show that this mission has the potential to develop technology that will either save NASA a lot of money, or give them something they can sell.
To use what MrStickball said about finding new methods of propulsion, if they plan and manage to develop a new type of propulsion they will likely both save NASA money and make enough selling the technology to cover the cost of the mission. If they can justify these things to NASA I'm sure it will be authorised to take place in 2016 as planned.
