The projects funded byNASA Innovative Advanced Concepts programsound more like a tilt of science fiction dreams than plausible enquiry , yet that ’s exactly what they are . These 15 projects just received $ 100,000 to search how executable they can be .
https://gizmodo.com/nasa-is-considering-the-use-of-soft-robotic-squids-to-e-1703592055
Before new technology like the Hall Thruster can rolled out for space exploration, researchers need funding to develop potentially-plausible ideas. Image credit: NASA/Michelle M. Murphy
http://www.nasa.gov/content/pushing-the-boundaries-of-propelling-deep-space-missions-0
These projects were funded in Phase Iof NASA ’s exploratory program that wait at the feasibility of apparently - crazy ideas that might drive forward new conception and technology for the next generation of quad exploration research . If these canonic feasibility study are successful , the projects are eligible for Phase IIand an extra $ 500,000 to fund an additional two years of development .
Several of the projects involve innovative uses for minor , thick , modest - monetary value satellites called CubeSats that can carry limited cargo , or rely on alternative energy sources to reduce dependance on atomic power for space geographic expedition .
1. Wind-Powered Drone Pairs For More Efficient Atmospheric Research Platforms
A linked pair of drones may be able to use aerodynamic tricks for prolonged stationkeeping in the stratosphere. Image credit: NASA
TheVirtual Flight Demonstration of Stratospheric Dual - Aircraft Platformwill link a brace of glider drones with a line as they soar around the stratosphere , providing a long - term atmospheric program . Led by William Engblom at Embry - Riddle Aeronautical University , the labor will deploy aircraft power by wind shear that get an extra encouragement from solar films and maybe even a nothingness turbine . The aircraft will be paired at dissimilar altitudes ( up to a kilometer asunder ) so they ’re in importantly different wind regimes . The upper glider , SAIL , provides rise and aerodynamic poking , while the lower aircraft , BOARD , provide upwind military unit . This should give a significant power boost overtraditional solar aircraft , allow for multi - twelvemonth stationkeeping and farseeing - term platforms for earth observation or communicating .
2. New Liquid Capture For More Efficient Air Scrubbing
Astronaut Steve Swanson performs maintenance on the Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly in April 2014. Image credit: NASA
Keeping aviation cleanis a major problem in comprise environments like blank post and submarine . TheThirsty wall – A Modern paradigm for air revitalization in life supportproject is being developed under the way of John Graf at NASA Johnson Space Center to swap out drive - melodic phrase system with liquid capture rather . Forced air is teasing because it ’s complicated , expect a lot of moving parts , trammel airflow , and in microgravity , also need heavy , inefficient removal bed . Early - generation liquid seizure systems expect gaseous state permeable membranes , which were both slow and tend to get poison over prison term . This young engineering uses hairlike fluid mechanics to directly discover cabin air as passive “ curtains ” that do n’t require gamey pressure sensation or high rate of flow velocity . It ’s also a footfall up from hero system of rules , replacing Monoethanolamine with ionic liquid as the CO2 capture for good office efficiency .
3. Pulsar-Based Navigation System For Deep Space Missions
The Crab Pulsar may one day be a key component in setting up interplanetary navigation systems. Image credit:NASA/HST/CXC/ASU/J. Hester et al.
TheA Tall Ship and a Star to Steer Her Byis being explicate by Massachusetts Institute of Technology ’s Michael Hecht . Along with joiningthe leaning of absurd astronomy acronymswith Differential Deployable Autonomous Radio Navigation , or DARN , the project wants to use radio observations of quasars , pulsar , and masers as navigational beacons for mysterious space missions . If it works , this could be the interplanetary version of GPS for navigation . For this other phase , the project is just place together a catalog of seed and plan conception for how to run a technology presentation mission .
4. Rocket Fuels That Can Be Mined In Space
TheIn - Space Manufacture of Storable Propellantswants to solve a canonical problem : how to provide propellant for space foreign mission without waste yet more propellent while have that propellant into blank . Instead of shipping propellent from Earth into orbit , Principle Investigator is John Lewis of Deep Space Industries is essay to discover ways to manufacture propellent in infinite . A major challenge with rocket fuel is to make it storable so it only explodes upon asking : we apply a hydrazine fuel with a N2O4 oxidizer . The problem with mining volatile from Near - Earth Asteroids is a deficiency N , so the proposal of marriage will need to develop an alternate suitable storable oxidizing agent .
5. Tiny CubeSats To Poke At The Composition Of Asteroids And Comets
CuebSats may one day venture out beyond Earth to explore asteroids. Image credit:NASA
Joseph Wang is leading the charge on theCubeSat with Nanostructured Sensing Instrumentation for Planetary Exploration , a project combine the excitement ofcheap , tiny CubeSatswith ourgrowing expertise at set ashore on comet and asteroids . The key part of the task are chintzy , lightweight , heavyset , disposable sensors being develop at the University of Southern California and the University of Utah that can notice 74 trace elements to the dear part per billion ( ppb ) . If the TiO2 nanotube sensing platform can be successfully integrated into CubeSats , they open up up the possibility of being able to earth - truth our remote detection of the authorship of the small rocky and icy bodies of our solar organisation .
6. Mini-Seismic Surveys To Investigate The Interior Structure Of Asteroids
Will Ida one day be the target of a seismic survey? Image credit:NASA/JPL
TheSeismic Exploration of Small Bodiesproject tickles my geophysical heart by bringing seismic study to tiny clump of rock and ice in deep quad . Under Jeffrey Plescia at Johns Hopkins University , the labor will compound micro - seismometers developed at Arizona State University with CubeSats to make impactors to investigate the interiors of asteroids and comets . The concept is very simple : pearl at least one micro - seismometer on the target ’s control surface , then smack it with a missile as a seismal DOE source to produce a known signaling . The seismic data point could be interpret using the same inversion technique as seismic surveys here on Earth , put up data on the seismic speed ( thus internal social structure ) of asteroids and comets .
7. Micro-Satellites For Interstellar Exploration
A wafer-probe travelling at near light speeds could reach Fomalhaut in just a few decades. Image credit:ESA/NASA/L. Calcada
TheDEEP IN Directed Energy Propulsion for Interstellar Explorationwants to up our plot with interstellar exploration by set ahead the next generation of deep space probes . Phil Lubin ’s research chemical group at the University of California at Santa Barbara is depend at pair directed energy propulsion withwafer - musical scale spacecraftto produce tiny probes propel by phased arrays of lasers . The miniature satellites will be designed to add on the tenacious - range remote detection presently done by orbital telescope . While ab initio interplanetary explorers , the wafer satellites could theoretically be boosted to relativistic speeds and be our first interstellar probe .
8. Rocket-Powered Hopper To Explore Neptune’s Moon Triton
Triton is the strange, retrograde moon of Neptune. Image credit:NASA
TheTriton Hopper : Exploring Neptune ’s Captured Kuiper Belt Objectwith Steven Oleson ’s COMPASS Conceptual Design Team want to explore whyNeptune ’s moon Triton is so very strange . The aim geographic expedition vehicle is a rocket salad - powered grasshopper . The hopper will practice an isotope rut rootage for radioisotope thermic propulsion , refuelling from either subsurface or aerofoil ice , or shabu concentrated from the thin ambiance via cryogenic pumping .
9. Submarine Squid To Explore The Oceans Of Europa
A squishy robotic squid may one day explore oceans on distant moons. Image credit: NASA/Cornell University/NSF
The development of theSoft - Robotic Rover with Electrodynamic Power Scavengingis being led by Mason Peck of Cornell University . The sonant , squid - inspired golem would be the first submarine rover to search another planet . The plotted power system are all about taking advantage of the local environment : the tentacles will glean power from changing magnetized orbit . In routine , the tentacles will power electrolysis to separate weewee into atomic number 1 and oxygen gas . The gas will be used to billow the calamari , changing its shape to actuate it through fluids . Europais the most famous watery moon that could be search by this calamari , but it could also work on other moon of Jupiter and Saturn that haveliquid lake or ocean .
10. Robot Swarm To Explore Lunar Shadows For Volatile Elements
The permanent shadows at the lunar poles may hide ice. Image credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
TheCRICKET : Cryogenic Reservoir Inventory by Cost - Effective Kinetically Enhanced Technologybeing developed by Jeffrey Plesia at Johns Hopkins University is all about bounce around the darkest slivers of the moonlight . A small herd of golem will exploreperpetually shadow region on the lunar polesforwater and other fickle elements . The drove consist of three roles : a swarm of crickets to hops , Australian crawl , and roll whike exploring the shadows ; a common carrier hive to collect data , navigate , furnish power , and disperse the cricket on the surface ; and an orbiting queen to deliver the robots and allow for communicating . The robots are all annex of existing technology , although these particular variants will carry spectrograph , lamps , heating system element , and whiskers to qualify the volatile .
11. Supercooling Materials To Provide Radiation Sheilding And Energy Storage
NASA Kennedy Space Center ’s Robert Youngquist is the principle investigator forCryogenic Selective Surfaces , a project to recrudesce surfaces for extreme peaceful cooling . By creating textile with with wavelength - dependent emissivity and assimilation properties , the enquiry team is skip they can create new cryogenic computer storage and tumid - weighing machine superconducting systems that can be used in deep distance for astronomic cosmic radiation shielding or vim entrepot . The paradigm materials have been tested on Earth to cool to -50 ° C below ambient temperature , but could theoretically work much well in a emptiness .
12. Sunlight-Drills To Capture And Mine Asteroids For Water
Piggybacking on concept-technology from the Asteroid Retrieval Mission is a starting point for mining asteroids for water. Image credit:NASA
TheAPIS ( Asteroid Provided In - Situ Supplies ): 100MT Of Water from a Single Falcon 9is the thought of Joel Sercel of ICS Associates Inc to touch on the job of how to receive available water in space in an low-priced , accessible manner . The team hop-skip that they can wrap up asteroids in bags , then use optic mining to centralise sunlight to drill into them . The task is design to be lightweight and heavyset enough that all the equipment can be loaded unto a individual arugula launching ( Falcon 9or equivalent ) , rein the technology of theAsteroid Redirect Missionto capture a prey and cakehole outgassing water released during optical excavation .
13. WindBots To Explore The Cloudy Skies Of Gas Giants
Windblown robots may one day explore the turbulent storms of Jupiter. Image credit:NASA
TheWindBots : persistent in - situ science Explorer for gas giantsis incisively what it say on the label : a project to create autonomous golem that can look into the atmospheres of Jupiter , Saturn , Uranus , or Neptune . Under the steering of Jet Propulsion Laboratory ’s Adrian Stoica , the project is hoping to plan robot that can forthwith glean energy topically , reserve them to persistently explore their assigned gas colossus . That same technology could theoretically be applied to other planetary automatonlike IE , reducing their reliance on expensive nuclear Energy Department .
14. Deformable Mirrors Shaped By Magnetic Fields
Deformable mirror are already in use at the Very Large Telescope , but they could be so much with child and estimable . look-alike credit : ESO
Melville Ulmer at Northwestern University is partner with researcher at the University of Illinois to investigate the feasibleness of creating shapable telescope mirrors with magnetic fields . Aperture : A Precise Extremely large brooding Telescope Using Re - configurable Elementsis a construct that combine a fly magnetic write head with magnetized bright material coat the back of a mirror , make a deformable reflecting membrane . Earlier iterations of the conception ran into problems with distorting the mirror outside of correctable error - edge , and creating a mirror that can keep its shape for farseeing periods of time .
15. New Type Of Lens To Reduce The Cost Of Large Telescopes
With waveplate lens technology, future telescopes could be both cheaper and even more enormous. Image credit:Thirty Meter Telescope International Observatory
One of the most expensive things about building telescope is train beautiful , flawless crystalline lens to center short . Nelson Tabirian is precede theThin - Film Broadband Large Area Imaging Systemproject at BEAM Engineering for Advanced Measurements Co. to apply their waveplate lens engineering science to creating a new case of promiscuous - weight , economical slight movie lens . The waveplate lenses and mirrors could theoretically be used to work up telescope with a far larger aperture than currently practicable under current technology and economic thoughtfulness , leading to a new generation of ultra - tremendous telescopes . The technology uses techniques develop for optical maser communicating to correct chromatic aberrations , permit submicroradian angular radiation therapy .
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