Tag: NIAC
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Could nuclear heaters keep astronauts warm on the moon? NASA is funding research to find out
This collage highlights some of the projects selected for funding through the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program, including a study looking at radioisotope heating systems for moonwalking astronauts, depicted at center left. (NASA Graphic) NASA says it’s funding a new batch of far-out research projects, including a study evaluating how radioactive heaters can keep astronauts…
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NASA awards funds to study deep-space interferometer and other far-out ideas
This collage highlights several concepts proposed by 2024 NIAC Phase I awardees, including miniaturized interstellar spacecraft, a Venus glider, a water detoxifier for Mars, a solar-system-scale interferometer and an electric aircraft flying above Mars. (NASA Illustration) A proposal to build a far-flung set of radio antennas to measure the cosmos is one of 13 far-out…
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NASA provides funding for way-out space proposals, including a flying boat for Titan
Artwork shows a probe flying through the skies of Titan, one of Saturn’s moons. (Image via Quinn Morley) NASA says it’ll distribute up to $2.45 million to 14 teams in support of experimental projects that would be right at home in the pages of a science-fiction novel — including a plan to send a flying…
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NASA backs concepts for deep-drilling Mars rover and interstellar-object probe
An illustration shows the deployment of an autonomous borebot into a layered deposit on Mars. The inset shows a closeup of the borebot drive system. (Planet Enterprises Illustration / James Vaughan) The latest crop of NASA-backed concepts for far-out space exploration includes “borebots” that could drill as far as a mile beneath the Martian surface…
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Far out! Xplore teams up with JPL and Aerospace Corp. on gravity-lens telescope
An artist’s conception shows Xplore’s advanced solar sail for NASA’s Solar Gravity Lens Focus mission. (Visualization by Bryan Versteeg, SpaceHabs.com / via Xplore) NASA has awarded a $2 million grant to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, The Aerospace Corp. — and Xplore, a Seattle-based space venture — to develop the design architecture for a far-out telescope…
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NASA funds ideas from science fiction
A scene from the 2012 movie “John Carter” shows an airship engaged in a Martian battle. The NASA-backed concept for a Martian airship isn’t quite as ambitious. (© 2011 Disney / John Carter™ ERB, Inc.) Truth can be stranger than fiction, but it shouldn’t be strange to hear that NASA spends millions of dollars on…
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MSNW’s magnetoshell aerobraking system gets in on NASA’s way-out research fund
MSNW’s magnetoshell aerocapture concept could help ease spaceships into orbit. (Credit: MSNW) A system that would use magnetic fields to ease a spacecraft into orbit after an interplanetary journey has won a $500,000 grant from NASA’s advanced research program for MSNW, a company based in Redmond. Wash. The money for MSNW is one of eight…
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NIAC – Fostering tomorrow’s exploration technology
NASA is seeking technology proposals for Phase II of the 2014 NASA Innovative Advanced Concept (NIAC) campaign, according to the Agency’s latest drive for its forward thinking program. Innovating for the future of space exploration, NIAC requests proposals that further develop the “most promising” of the latest funded NIAC Phase I proposals. Funding the Future:…
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Enabling the future: NASA call for exploration revolution via NIAC concepts
NASA’s Space Technology Program announced on Monday they are looking for what they describe as “far-out” concepts and ideas, as part of the Agency’s NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. Otherwise tagged as “game-changing”, such concepts range from advanced space suits to new propulsion methods for exploration spacecraft. NIAC: The original NIAC ran from 1998-2007,…