NASA Looks To The Future With New, Different Space-Tech Ideas
Do you ever watch sci-fi movies about space and wonder: “When the hell are we going to start trying to do some of this stuff? When are we going to try radical ideas? When are people like NASA going to do something other than the same crap for the past 70 years?!”
Good news, everyone! NASA is looking at some new space technology for the future. NASA has picked 13 crazy space ideas thanks to the additional space technology funding they received. Imagine if we gave them $100 billion?! We’d be eating gluten-free kale cake on Mars in a decade. Well, that’d be lame, but anyway…
The 13 pitches are concepts that won during Phase 1 funding this year from the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC). This program was created to gather ideas from outside of the box to encourage new and potentially groundbreaking technology in space exploration.
The 13 concepts that won will get $100,000 and a nine month period to give them the chance to prove that these ideas could work. If they’re proved feasible, they can then apply for Phase 2 funding — $500,000 and an additional 2 years to continue development.
“All of the final candidates were outstanding, and limiting the choice to what fit in our budget was difficult. We hope each new study will push boundaries and explore new approaches — that’s what makes NIAC unique.” Jason Derleth, NIAC program executive, said in a statement.
Here’s the full lists of the 13 NIAC 2016 projects that have been funded in Phase 1:
- Light Weight Multifunctional Planetary Probe for Extreme Environment Exploration and Locomotion, Javid Bayandor, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg;
- Venus Interior Probe Using In-situ Power and Propulsion(VIP-INSPR), Ratnakumar Bugga, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California;
- Project RAMA: Reconstituting Asteroids into MechanicalAutomata, Jason Dunn, Made In Space, Inc. in Moffett Field, California;
- Molecular Composition Analysis of Distant Targets, Gary Hughes, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo;
- Brane Craft, Siegfried Janson, The Aerospace Corporation in Los Angeles;
- Stellar Echo Imaging of Exoplanets, Chris Mann, Nanohmics, Inc. in Austin, Texas;
- Mars Molniya Orbit Atmospheric Resource Mining, Robert Mueller, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida;
- Journey to the Center of Icy Moons, Masahiro Ono, JPL;
- E-Glider: Active Electrostatic Flight for Airless Body Exploration, Marco Quadrelli, JPL;
- Urban biomining meets printable electronics: end-to-end destination biological recycling and reprinting, Lynn Rothschild, NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California;
- Automaton Rover for Extreme Environments, Jonathan Sauder, JPL;
- Fusion-Enabled Pluto Orbiter and Lander, Stephanie Thomas, Princeton Satellite Systems, Inc. in Plainsboro Township, New Jersey;
- NIMPH– Nano Icy Moons Propellant Harvester, Michael VanWoerkom, ExoTerra Resource, LLC.
I hope all of these get funded for Phase 2. We need more and more ideas to further expand our reach to the stars. So far, humans haven’t physically traveled past the Moon to another object. Time to change that.
(Via Space)
Follow Jeff Sorensen on TWITTER
Jeff Sorensen is an author, writer and occasional comedian living in Detroit, Michigan. You can look for more of his work on The Huffington Post, UPROXX, BGR and by just looking up his name.
Contact: jeff@socialunderground.com