NASA has funded a brand new set of visionary ideas for space exploration that might one day show helpful — and maybe even transformative.
The NASA Progressive Superior Ideas (NIAC) program offers funding for early-stage research into applied sciences that might assist future missions. NIAC grants value $175,000 apiece shall be given to 14 researchers who’re probing the boundaries of what’s doable to permit NASA to guage potential new applied sciences, the company introduced earlier this month.
This yr’s Section 1 NIAC choices embody concepts for space telescopes, comparable to a brand new type of observatory comprised of 1000’s of an identical small satellites utilizing the idea of interferometry, and one other utilizing fluidic shaping in microgravity to create a 164-foot-wide (50 meters) unsegmented mirror for a brand new technology of space telescopes. One other telescope idea seeks to have the ability to resolve Earth-like planets orbiting sun-like stars inside 10 parsecs (32.6 light-years) of Earth.
Associated: NASA and DARPA will build a nuclear rocket by 2027
Pellet-beam propulsion and nuclear engine ideas shall be investigated for doable utility to space transportation. A flying boat for exploring Saturn’s large moon Titan and a hybrid fusion quick fission nuclear reactor for accessing ocean-harboring icy moons comparable to Jupiter’s Europa are additionally among the many newly funded ideas.
“NASA dares to make the inconceivable doable. That is solely achievable due to the innovators, thinkers and doers who’re serving to us think about and put together for the way forward for space exploration,” NASA Administrator Invoice Nelson mentioned in a statement (opens in new tab) launched by the company on Jan. 9.
“The NIAC program helps give these forward-thinking scientists and engineers the instruments and assist they should spur expertise that can allow future NASA missions,” Nelson mentioned.
The full list (opens in new tab) of concepts and their principal investigators chosen for Section 1 NIAC 2023 grants is under:
- Fluidic Telescope: Enabling the Next Generation of Large Space Observatories (opens in new tab) (Edward Balaban, NASA’s Ames Analysis Heart in California’s Silicon Valley)
- Photophoretic Propulsion Enabling Mesosphere Exploration (opens in new tab) (Igor Bargatin, College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia)
- Accessing Icy World Oceans Using Lattice Confinement Fusion Fast Fission (opens in new tab) (Theresa Benyo, NASA’s Glenn Analysis Heart in Cleveland)
- Bend-Forming of Large Electrostatically Actuated Space Structures (opens in new tab) (Zachary Cordero, MIT)
- Lunar South Pole Oxygen Pipeline (opens in new tab) (Peter Curreri, Lunar Assets, Inc. in Houston)
- Pellet-Beam Propulsion for Breakthrough Space Exploration (opens in new tab) (Artur Davoyan, College of California, Los Angeles)
- New Class of Bimodal Nuclear Thermal/Electric Propulsion with a Wave Rotor Topping Cycle Enabling Fast Transit to Mars (opens in new tab) (Ryan Gosse, College of Florida, Gainesville)
- Biomineralization-Enabled Self-Growing Building Blocks for Habitat Outfitting on Mars (opens in new tab) (Congrui Jin, College of Nebraska, Lincoln)
- Great Observatory for Long Wavelengths (opens in new tab) (Mary Knapp, MIT)
- TitanAir: Leading-Edge Liquid Collection to Enable Cutting-Edge Science (opens in new tab) (Quinn Morley, Planet Enterprises in Gig Harbor, Washington)
- EmberCore Flashlight: Long Distance Lunar Characterization with Intense Passive X- and Gamma ray Source (opens in new tab) (Christopher Morrison, Extremely Protected Nuclear Company – Area, in Seattle)
- Diffractive Interfero Coronagraph Exoplanet Resolver: Detecting and Characterizing all Earth-like Exoplanets Orbiting Sun-like Stars within 10 Parsecs (opens in new tab) (Heidi Newberg, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York)
- Radioisotope Thermoradiative Cell Power Generator (opens in new tab) (Stephen Polly, Rochester Institute of Know-how in Rochester, New York)
- Aerogel Core Fission Fragment Rocket Engine (opens in new tab) (Ryan Weed, Positron Dynamics in Seattle)
The NIAC program began in 2011 and is funded by NASA’s Area Know-how Mission Directorate.
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