At 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday, October 1st, the U.S. federal government officially shut down, halting all government services non-critical to protecting life or property. For 15,000 NASA employees, that means an unwanted stay on the couch. For others, it spells work without pay. And when the government does reopen, it may bring a precarious funding situation for the agency.
“No one really knows what’s going to happen, because the climate is just changing from day to day,” says planetary scientist Tanya Harrison (Outer Space Institute) who has worked on multiple Mars missions. “There’s just massive uncertainty all around.”
Read more: NASA Faces Government Shutdown, Funding Fears Rise by Hannah Richter