Caltech receives $100-million gift to develop new technologies at the speed of SpaceX

"Maybe the solution is just to put 10 CPUs that you're used to from your laptop and say, OK, we can tolerate the loss of three," Simons said.

JPL director and Caltech vice president Laurie Leshin said that "whole SpaceX vibe of test, break it, test again, fly a lot is helping to drive some paradigm shift" — which is very unlike the traditional process of funding and carrying out JPL projects.

"Whenever we build a project for NASA, there are rules that we have to follow on how we manage programs, how we manage risk," Leshin said. "We are stewarding taxpayer resources, so it's very understandable that they want to have deep understanding of everything we're doing and any risk we're taking. And so that means things take longer and cost more."

Just last week, SpaceX launched the third test flight of its Starship rocket that is planned for lunar and ultimately Mars missions. While its most successful flight yet, the rocket was still lost before it could splash down in the Indian Ocean.

SpaceX has a contract with NASA based on the Starship to develop a system for landing astronauts on the moon.

Traditional NASA projects at JPL might cost hundreds of millions of dollars or even billions of dollars, while Hub projects likely would cost in the tens of millions or less, Leshin said, noting SpaceX will launch a customer's satellite from its Falcon 9 rocket for $1 million.

"Access to space has always been a huge barrier until very recently — it is really a game changer," she said. "Right now, we tend to spend a lot of money on ground-based testing for that, but there's no substitute for actually getting to fly new technology."

The $100-million gift, which has been fully funded, is expected to generate several million dollars a year in income for the Hub, which could pay for some small projects; many would still need outside money and industry partnerships.

"We're providing a $100-million blank canvas for the scientists to then take and paint — and hopefully come up with something that will resonate with all mankind," Brinson said.