NASA has selected 17 new concepts of futuristic space technologies to study, including a spacecraft that could harness the heat of the Sun to propel it out of the solar system at unprecedented speeds, small climbing robots that could explore underground caves on Mars and a deployable rotating habitat with artificial gravity, among others.
With a new round of NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) funding, a total of $5.1 million will be provided to 17 researchers. The NIAC program nurtures visionary ideas that could transform future NASA missions with the creation of breakthroughs.
Below are the titles of the proposals selected for the NIAC Phase I and Phase II grants:
NIAC Phase I Grants
- Rydberg cryospheric radar
- Silent Solid-State Propulsion for Advanced Air Mobility Vehicles
- Combined heat shield and solar thermal propulsion system for an Oberth maneuver
- CREW HAT: Extended protection against cosmic radiation using Halbach’s Torus
- The Spacesuit’s Digital Thread: Manufacturing 4.0 of High-Performance Custom Spacesuits for Mars Exploration
- Breathing the Air of Mars: Stationary and Portable O2 Generation
- Pi – Terminal Defense for Humanity
- Hybrid Observatory of Earth-like Exoplanets (HOEE)
- In Situ Neutral Optics Velocity Analyzer for Thermospheric Exploration (INOVATE)
- Starburst: a revolutionary deployable structure architecture adaptable under stress
- Venus atmosphere and cloud particle sample return for astrobiology
- SCOPE: ScienceCraft for outer planet exploration
NIAC Phase II Grants
- BREEZE: bio-inspired beam for extreme environments and zonal exploration
- Kilometric spatial structures from a single launch
- Atomic Planar Power for Lightweight Exploration (APPLE)
- ReachBot: small robot for large mobile manipulation tasks in Martian cave environments
- SWIM: Detection with independent micro-swimmers
While Phase I fellows will each receive $175,000 for a nine-month study, Phase II fellows will each receive $600,000 for study over a two-year period.
The aforementioned projects are still in the early stages of development and are not considered official NASA missions, the agency said Saturday.
More information can be found here.
✅an inflatable bird-like drone to study the atmosphere of Venus✅a spacecraft with enhanced radiation protection for its crew✅a deployable rotating habitat with artificial gravity. https://t.co/7rfIxVHoJd pic.twitter.com/OxPsErc4TB
— NASA Technology (@NASA_Technology) February 25, 2022
