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The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program is funding another round of studies of space technology concepts, including shapeshifting robots that can adapt to multiple terrains, a small rover that can carry the bulky life equipment that an astronaut would normally carry on their back, a combined particle and laser beam for accelerating small payloads, space habitats constructed using fungal mycelium, a modular self-assembling space telescope with a large aperture, and a radioisotope positron propulsion system.
Some of the Phase 2 concepts that were selected for further study include a space telescope with a 1 kilometer aperture, a Triton "hopper", a harvester that can manufacture propellant from ice in order to launch a sample return, and a Mach Effect thruster.
Several of the proposals mention the goal of getting a space telescope to at least 548.7 AU away from the Sun to perform astronomy using the Sun as a gravitational lens. For example, the Breakthrough Propulsion Architecture for Interstellar Precursor Missions could get a payload out to 550 AU in 15 years, although it would require a multi-hundred-megawatt phased-array laser.
Projects in Phase 1:Shapeshifters from Science Fiction to Science Fact: Globetrotting from Titan's Rugged Cliffs to its Deep Seafloors
Aliakbar Aghamohammadi, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CaliforniaBiobot: Innovative Offloading of Astronauts for More Effective Exploration
David Akin, University of Maryland, College ParkLofted Environmental and Atmospheric Venus Sensors (LEAVES)
Jeffrey Balcerski, Ohio Aerospace Institute, ClevelandMeteoroid Impact Detection for Exploration of Asteroids (MIDEA)
Sigrid Close, Stanford University, CaliforniaOn-Orbit, Collision-Free Mapping of Small Orbital Debris
Christine Hartzell, University of Maryland, College ParkMarsbee – Swarm of Flapping Wing Flyers for Enhanced Mars Exploration
Chang-kwon Kang, University of Alabama, HuntsvilleRotary Motion Extended Array Synthesis (R-MXAS)
John Kendra, Leidos, Inc., Reston, VirginiaPROCSIMA: Diffractionless Beamed Propulsion for Breakthrough Interstellar Missions
Chris Limbach, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, College StationSPARROW: Steam Propelled Autonomous Retrieval Robot for Ocean Worlds
Gareth Meirion-Griffith, JPLBALLET: Balloon Locomotion for Extreme Terrain
Hari Nayar, JPLMyco-Architecture off Planet: Growing Surface Structures at Destination
Lynn Rothscild, NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CaliforniaModular Active Self-Assembling Space Telescope Swarms
Dmitry Savransky, Cornell University, Ithaca, New YorkAstrophysics and Technical Study of a Solar Neutrino Spacecraft
Nickolas Solomey, Wichita State University, KansasAdvanced Diffractive MetaFilm Sailcraft
Grover Swartzlander, Rochester Institute of Technology, New YorkSpectrally-Resolved Synthetic Imaging Interferometer
Jordan Wachs, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation, Boulder, ColoradoRadioisotope Positron Propulsion
Ryan Weed, Positron Dynamics, Livermore, CaliforniaPhase 2 projects that were previously in Phase 1:
Pulsed Fission-Fusion (PuFF) Propulsion Concept
Robert Adams, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AlabamaA Breakthrough Propulsion Architecture for Interstellar Precursor Missions
John Brophy, JPLKilometer Space Telescope (KST)
Devon Crowe, Raytheon, El Segundo, CaliforniaDismantling Rubble Pile Asteroids with AoES (Area-of-Effect Soft-bots)
Jay McMahon, University of Colorado, BoulderTriton Hopper: Exploring Neptune's Captured Kuiper Belt Object
Steven Oleson, NASA's Glenn Research Center, ClevelandSpacecraft Scale Magnetospheric Protection from Galactic Cosmic Radiation
John Slough, MSNW, LLC, Redmond, WashingtonDirect Multipixel Imaging and Spectroscopy of an Exoplanet with a Solar Gravity Lens Mission
Slava Turyshev, JPLNIMPH: Nano Icy Moons Propellant Harvester
Michael VanWoerkom, ExoTerra Resource, Littleton, ColoradoMach Effect for in space propulsion: Interstellar mission
James Woodward, Space Studies Institute, Inc., Mojave, California
(Score: 2) by turgid on Monday April 02 2018, @04:12PM (2 children)
These are the coolest things I have ever seen.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Touché) by bob_super on Monday April 02 2018, @05:55PM (1 child)
That's great, since most will never exist, as soon as SLS grows to chomp off another 50% of the remaining NASA budget.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Monday April 02 2018, @06:21PM
Silly me!
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday April 02 2018, @04:15PM (7 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 02 2018, @06:24PM
What does the market say?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday April 02 2018, @07:58PM (1 child)
Is anyone talking about this supposed communications application for the Mach/Woodward effect?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday April 02 2018, @08:46PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 02 2018, @10:41PM (3 children)
What happened to EM-drive research? Sure, it's a bit of a long-shot, but the closest thing we have to Trek going. China was going to test it "soon" in space, but we get silence. I suspect it failed in space and they are embarrassed.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday April 03 2018, @10:07AM (2 children)
Not much talk about it other than a (low detail propaganda) mention on Chinese TV [nextbigfuture.com] last last year, and Roger Shawyer hyping [nextbigfuture.com] up a more magical version earlier in 2017.
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/tag/emdrive [nextbigfuture.com]
There have been numerous EmDrive threads on forum.nasaspaceflight.com where people post their own tests of EmDrive prototypes, basically done in their home basements, but I can't access the forum right now.
Despite a paper or two finding evidence of anomalous thrust, the state of emdrive research is bad... at least publicly. If the thing does work, it could have significant national security implications [nextbigfuture.com]. Easy disruption/destruction/capture of satellites, high-range flying and hovering drones/cars packed with explosives, free energy devices, etc.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 03 2018, @06:16PM (1 child)
I know you've been one of the biggest cheerleaders for this, but really? For something that isn't backed by physics and whose "anomalous thrust" measurements are not even convincingly above a signal to noise ratio of 0.5, this is going to give us hovercrafts and free energy devices? Now you're turning the corner and going down the "the Man is going to keep this down" road?
If that's the road you're travelling, at least jump out ahead and give us a collective noun for "the Man". It should be at least as catchy as "Big Oil" if you want that narrative to stick better.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday April 03 2018, @07:49PM
Well, you actually don't know, do you? All I'm doing is listing implications of the device, IF IT DOES WORK. That says nothing about how confident I am that it is or is not a scam.
I have to mention free energy devices because some of EmDrive's biggest detractors (e.g. GoatGuy on NextBigFuture) say that if it works as described, it enables such.
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