NASA selects future space technology projects
To fund preliminary studies of technologies that could be used in future aerospace missions, the US space agency created NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program.
Founded in 2011, the successor to the Institute for Advanced Concepts, the program has just announced its latest award-winning projects totaling US$5.1 million (approximately OMR25.8 million).
“As we focus on increasingly challenging destinations to explore with humans and robots, innovative ideas and forward-thinking will be essential to help us reach new milestones,” NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Milroy said in a NASA news release. “Concepts like these explored in this new round of NIAC funding help us expand the scope of what we can achieve.”
Among the projects selected, there are 12 new proposals for Phase I studies, as well as five Phase II grants that will allow researchers to continue their previous work on innovative concepts.
The selected projects are still in the early stages of development, and are not considered official NASA missions. Phase One Fellows will receive $175,000 per nine-month study, and Phase Two Fellows will receive $600,000 per student over two years.
“NASA’s mission to explore the universe requires new technologies and new ways of doing things,” said Jim Reuter, associate director of the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) at Headquarters in Washington. “Exploring these creative ideas is the first step in turning science fiction into science reality.”
Explore some of the space technology concepts selected by the agency
Among the new first-stage projects is a new design for a manned spacecraft that offers more radiation protection on long flights than conventional crew units. There is also a design for a completely silent electric aircraft and an idea for a spacecraft that can harness the sun’s heat to propel it out of the solar system at very high altitudes, among other proposals.
John Mather, the 2006 Nobel Prize winner in Physics and an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, presents a concept that could help humanity study Earth-like exoplanets. The shadow of stars the size of a football field in space aligns with ground-based telescopes, blocking the light of distant stars and allowing astronomers to look for signs of life in the atmospheres of other planets.Star systems.
There is also a concept proposed by Sarah Seeger of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that would help scientists study a planet much closer to their home: Venus. The probe will descend by parachute into the planet’s atmosphere to capture a sample of gas and clouds. The sample will be brought to Earth, where scientists can search for signs of life in Venus’s atmosphere.
“As in years past, our new group of NIAC Fellows showcases the creativity and vision of the broader space community,” said Michael LaPointe, acting NIAC program manager at NASA Headquarters.
In the second phase, one of the selected projects proposes small climbing robots that could explore the caves under the surface of Mars. Another, offers a new way to use nuclear power for spacecraft. The third concept proposes a swarm of 3D-printed micro-swimming robots that can explore ocean worlds such as Enceladus, Europa and Titan.
Also in the second phase is Carnegie Mellon University’s Zack Manchester project, which features the concept of artificial gravity in space using a kilometer-sized rotating structure. When launched in a single rocket, the proposed hull would expand by up to 150 times its original size, becoming a massive rotating habitat that would provide Earth-like gravity for parts of the hull.
See the full list of projects selected by NASA
Scholars have been selected to receive 2022 NIAC Phase I grants
- Dharmendra Arumugam, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California: Rydberg Cryosphere Radar
- Stephen Barrett, MIT, Cambridge: Quiet and powerful propulsion for advanced air traffic vehicles
- Jason Pinkowski, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore: Integrated heat shield and solar thermal propulsion system for the Oberth maneuver
- Elena D’Onghia, University of Wisconsin-Madison: CREW HAT: Cosmic Radiation Extended Using Torus Halbach
- Bonnie Dunbar, Texas A&M University, College Station: Digital spacesuit line: 4.0 high-performance custom spacesuit manufacturing for Mars exploration
- Evan Ermanowski, Arizona State University, Tempe: Breathing Martian Air: Static and Portable O2 Generation
- Philip Lubin, University of California, Santa Barbara: Pi-Terminal Defense for Humanity
- John Mather, NASA Goddard: Hybrid Observatory for Earth-Like Exoplanets (HOEE)
- Marcin Belinsky, University of Colorado, Boulder: Neutral optics in an atmospheric exploration velocity analyzer (INOVATE)
- Jonathan Sauder, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California: Starburst: A revolutionary adaptive and adaptive framework architecture
- Sarah Seeger, MIT, Cambridge: The atmosphere of Venus and the return of a sample of cloud particles for astrobiology
- Mahmoud Sultana, NASA Goddard: Scope: Scientific practice of extraterrestrial exploration
Scholars have been selected to receive 2022 NIAC Phase II Scholarships
- Javed Payandur, State University of New York at Buffalo: BREEZE: a beam inspired by harsh environments and exploration
- Zach Manchester, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Space mileage structures from a single launch
- Joseph Nemanek, Aerospace Company in El Segundo, California: Planar Atomic Light Exploration System (Apple): A lightweight and compact plutonium-based power generation system for future missions
- Marco Pavon, Stanford University in California: ReachBot: a small robot for large mobile manipulation missions in the environments of the caves of Mars
- Ethan Schaller, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California: Swimming: detection by micro-independent swimmers
Have you seen our new videos on Youtube? Subscribe to our channel!
“Organizer. Social media geek. General communicator. Bacon scholar. Proud pop culture trailblazer.”