Thu, Aug 11, 2011
Flywheel-Augmented Spacesuits, 3D-Printed Planetary Outposts
Among Ideas
NASA has selected 30 proposals for funding under its Innovative
Advanced Concepts, or NIAC, program. The proposals were chosen
based on their potential to transform future space missions, enable
new capabilities or significantly alter current approaches to
launching, building and operating space systems.
Each proposal will receive approximately $100,000 for one year
to advance the innovative space technology concept and help NASA
meet operational and future mission requirements.
Proposals include a broad range of imaginative and creative
ideas, such as: changing the course of dangerous orbital debris; a
spacesuit that uses flywheels to stabilize and assist astronauts as
they work in microgravity; the use of 3-D printing to create a
planetary outpost; and multiple innovative propulsion and power
concepts needed for future space missions.
The original NIAC program, known as the NASA Institute for
Advanced Concepts, served agency needs from 1998 to 2007. It was an
independent open forum for the external analysis and definition of
revolutionary space and aeronautics concepts to complement the
advanced concepts activities conducted within NASA.
In 2008, Congress directed the National Research Council to
conduct a review of NIAC’s effectiveness and to make
recommendations concerning the importance of such a program. Chief
among the council's recommendations was a mechanism to investigate
visionary, far-reaching, advanced concepts as part of the agency's
mission. NASA re-established the NIAC program during fiscal year
2011.
"These innovative concepts have the potential to mature into the
transformative capabilities NASA needs to improve our current space
mission operations, seeding the technology breakthroughs needed for
the challenging space missions in NASA's future," said NASA Chief
Technologist Bobby Braun.
NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist manages the NIAC
program.
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