NASA will be allocating budget on ambitious and futuristic projects that successfully passed the first stage of NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC).
NIAC annually hosts a program that welcomes cutting edge proposals from scientists. The concepts introduced are not merely cool, awesome ideas but technically plausible ones. All projects underwent a peer-reviewed process, and these are scrutinized carefully as these are deemed useful to improve the aerospace systems and space exploration technologies.
Of the 13 concepts submitted, NASA has chosen eight including a deep sleep chamber that could be utilized by astronauts during their anticipated Mars mission, the Engadget reported.
Other mind-blowing ideas welcomed for NIAC's Phase II program include a "magnetoshell," which utilized aerodynamic drag forces to slow down descending spacecraft and use of robots to initiate an advanced habitat system. There is also the use of "solar white" deep-space coating that reflects 99.9 percent of the Sun's energy for cryogenic storage.
While these projects seem to only exist in movies, inventors of each technology demonstrated the feasibleness of their respective studies. The space agency will be granting all successful candidates $500,000 each to develop their concepts more in 2 years' time.
According to NASA, below is the list of the ideas that passed this year:
- Advancing Torpor Inducing Transfer Habitats for Human Stasis to Mars -- Aims to transport crews from Earth to Mars and vice versa using an "inactive, non-cryonic torpor sleep states" during the entire inspace duration.
- Cryogenic Selective Services -- Uses solar white that has the capacity to reflect over 99.9 percent of the Sun's energy, thereby achieving a steady state temperature of below 50 K (oxygen's freezing point).
- Directed Energy Interstellar Study -- Utilizes directed energy to achieve relativistic flight to make way to the first ever interstellar mission.
Experimental Demonstration and System Analysis for Plasmonic Force Propulsion -- Suggests the need for micro-propulsion to position and accurately point micro-satellites bound for astrophysics missions.
Flight Demonstration of Novel Atmospheric Satellite Concept -- Attempts to achieve cheap atmospheric satellite through using both wind and solar energy.
- Further Development of Aperture -- Creates bigger mirrors than the currently used James Webb Space Telescope. It plans to launch a deployable membrane-like mirror.
- Magnetoshell Aerocapture for Manned Missions and Planetary Deep Space Orbiters -- Aims to use aerobraking and aerocapture to enable long-term studies of other planets and their satellites.
- Tensegrity Approaches to In-Space Construction of a 1g Growable Habitat -- Seeks to create a rotating habitat equipped with robotic system that could easily build structure and provide habitat growth abilities.
