NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program is advancing six “‘science fiction-like” space technology projects, including a lunar railway and a fluid telescope.

Six visionary concept studies have been selected by NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program for additional funding and development. Each study has already completed the initial NIAC phase, showing their futuristic ideas — like a lunar railway system and fluid-based telescopes — may provide fresh perspectives and approaches as NASA explores the unknown in space.

The NIAC Phase II conceptual studies will receive up to $600,000 to continue working over the next two years to address key remaining technical and budget hurdles and pave their development path forward. When Phase II is complete, these studies could advance to the final NIAC phase, earning additional funding and development consideration toward becoming a future aerospace mission.

NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program is advancing six “’science fiction-like” space technology projects, including a lunar railway and a fluid telescope. Six visionary concept studies have been selected by NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program for additional funding and development

What is the newest space technology?

Latest about Tech

• Private moon lander will carry Nokia’s 4G cell network to the lunar surface this year. … 
• Highly precise atomic clocks could soon get even better. … 
• Private moon mission to carry NASA electric moon dust shield in 2024. … 
• Rocket Lab gearing up to refly Electron booster for 1st time.

What are the future space science and technology?

Further exploration will potentially involve expedition and the other planets and settlements on the Moon as well as establishing mining and fueling outposts, particularly in the asteroid belt. Physical exploration outside the Solar System will be robotic for the foreseeable future

How does NASA improve life on Earth?

Solar energy, flat-screen televisions, battery-powered tools, desktop computers and bulletproof vests have all been developed from NASA technology

What is NASA’s latest spaceship?

Orion spacecraft

NASA’s Orion spacecraft is built to take humans farther than they’ve ever gone before. On Artemis missions, Orion will carry the crew to space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel, and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities

Mars is an obvious source of inspiration for science fiction stories. It is familiar and well-studied, yet different and far enough away to compel otherworldly adventures. NASA has its sights on the Red Planet for many of the same reasons.  

Robots, including the Perseverance rover launching soon to Mars, teach us about what it’s like on the surface. That intel helps inform future human missions to the Red Planet. We’ll also need to outfit spacecraft and astronauts with technologies to get them there, explore the surface, and safely return them home. The roundtrip mission, including time in transit – from and back to Earth – and on the Martian surface, will take about two years.

Technology development has already begun to enable a crewed Mars mission as early as the 2030s. Many of the capabilities will be demonstrated at the Moon first, during the Artemis missions, while other systems are more uniquely suited for deeper space. Here are six technologies NASA is working on to make Mars science fiction a reality.

1. Powerful propulsion systems to get us there (and home!) quicker

Astronauts bound for Mars will travel about 140 million miles into deep space. Advancements in propulsion capabilities are the key to reaching our destination as quickly and safely as possible.

It is too soon to say which propulsion system will take astronauts to Mars, but we know it needs to be nuclear-enabled to reduce travel time. NASA is advancing multiple options, including nuclear electric and nuclear thermal propulsion. Both use nuclear fission but are very different from each other. A nuclear electric rocket is more efficient, but it doesn’t generate a lot of thrust. Nuclear thermal propulsion, on the other hand, provides much more “oomph.”

2. Inflatable heat shield to land astronauts on other planets

The largest rover we’ve landed on Mars is about the size of a car, and sending humans to Mars will require a much bigger spacecraft. New technologies will allow heavier spacecraft to enter the Martian atmosphere, approach the surface, and land close to where astronauts want to explore.

NASA is working on an inflatable heat shield that allows the large surface area to take up less space in a rocket than a rigid one. The technology could land spacecraft on any planet with an atmosphere. It would expand and inflate before it enters the Martian atmosphere to land cargo and astronauts safely.

3. High-tech Martian spacesuits

Spacesuits are essentially custom spacecraft for astronauts. NASA’s latest spacesuit is so high-tech, its modular design is engineered to be evolved for use anywhere in space.

The first woman and the next man on the Moon will wear NASA’s next-generation spacesuits called the exploration extravehicular mobility unit or xEMU. The spacesuits prioritize crew safety while also allowing Artemis Generation moonwalkers to make more natural, Earth-like movements and accomplish tasks that weren’t possible during the Apollo missions

4. Martian home and lab on wheels

To reduce the number of items needed to land on the surface, NASA will combine the first Martian home and vehicle into a single rover complete with breathable air.

NASA has conducted extensive rover testing on Earth to inform development of a pressurized mobile home on the Moon. Artemis astronauts who live and work in the future pressurized Moon rover will be able to offer feedback to help refine the rover capabilities for astronauts on Mars. NASA’s robotic rovers will help with the Martian design, too – everything from the best wheels for Mars to how a larger vehicle will navigate the tough terrain.

5. Uninterrupted power

Like we use electricity to charge our devices on Earth, astronauts will need a reliable power supply to explore Mars. The system will need to be lightweight and capable of running regardless of its location or the weather on the Red Planet.

Mars has a day and night cycle like Earth and periodic dust storms that can last for months, making nuclear fission power a more reliable option than solar power. NASA already tested the technology on Earth and demonstrated it is safe, efficient, and plentiful enough to enable long-duration surface missions. NASA plans to demonstrate and use the fission power system on the Moon first, then Mars.

6. Laser communications to send more information home

Human missions to Mars may use lasers to stay in touch with Earth. A laser communications system at Mars could send large amounts of real-time information and data, including high-definition images and video feeds.

Sending a map of Mars to Earth might take nine years with current radio systems, but as little as nine weeks with laser communications. The technology would also allow us to communicate with astronauts, to see and hear more of their adventures on the Red Planet

One of the ‘science fiction-like’ concepts — for a lunar railway system to provide payload transport on the Moon — is being developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program (NIAC) has selected six visionary concept studies for additional funding and development. Each study has already completed the initial NIAC phase, showing their futuristic ideas — like a lunar railway system and fluid-based telescopes — may provide fresh perspectives and approaches as NASA explores the unknown in space

Fluidic Telescope (FLUTE): Enabling the Next Generation of Large Space Observatories would create a large optical observatory in space using fluidic shaping of ionic liquids. These in-space observatories could potentially help investigate NASA’s highest priority astrophysics targets, including Earth-like exoplanets, first-generation stars, and young galaxies. The FLUTE study is led by Edward Balaban from NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.

Pulsed Plasma Rocket (PPR): Shielded, Fast Transits for Humans to Mars

The future of a space-faring civilization will depend on the ability to move both cargo and humans efficiently and rapidly. Due to the extremely large distances that are involved in space travel, the spacecraft must reach high velocities for reasonable mission transit times. Thus, a propulsion system that produces a high thrust with a high specific impulse is essential. However, no such technologies are currently available.

Howe Industries is currently developing a propulsion system that may generate up to 100,000 N of thrust with a specific impulse (Isp) of 5,000 seconds. The Pulsed Plasma Rocket (PPR) is originally derived from the Pulsed Fission Fusion concept, but is smaller, simpler, and more affordable. The exceptional performance of the PPR, combining high Isp and high thrust, holds the potential to revolutionize space exploration. The system’s high efficiency allows for manned missions to Mars to be completed within a mere two months. Alternatively, the PPR enables the transport of much heavier spacecraft that are equipped with shielding against Galactic Cosmic Rays, thereby reducing crew exposure to negligible levels. The system can also be used for other far range missions, such as those to the Asteroid Belt or even to the 550 AU location, where the Sun’s gravitational lens focuses can be considered. The PPR enables a whole new era in space exploration.

The Great Observatory for Long Wavelengths (GO-LoW) could change the way NASA conducts astronomy. This mega-constellation low-frequency radio telescope uses thousands of autonomous SmallSats capable of measuring the magnetic fields emitted from exoplanets and the cosmic dark ages. GO-LoW is led by Mary Knapp with MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Radioisotope Thermoradiative Cell Power Generator is investigating new in-space power sources, potentially operating at higher efficiencies than NASA legacy power generators. This technology could enable small exploration and science spacecraft in the future that are unable to carry bulky solar or nuclear power systems. This power generation concept study is from Stephen Polly at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York

FLOAT: Flexible Levitation on a Trackwould be a lunar railway system, providing reliable, autonomous, and efficient payload transport on the Moon. This rail system could support daily operations of a sustainable lunar base as soon as the 2030s. Ethan Schaler leads FLOAT at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California

ScienceCraft for Outer Planet Exploration distributes Quantum Dot-based sensors throughout the surface of a solar sail, enabling it to become an innovative imager. Quantum physics would allow NASA to take scientific measurements through studying how the dots absorb light. By leveraging the solar sail’s area, it allows lighter, more cost-effective spacecraft to carry imagers across the solar system. ScienceCraft is led by NASA’s Mahmooda Sultana at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland

What is lunar railway

NASA is developing a lunar railway system called Flexible Levitation on a Track (FLOAT) to transport payloads around a sustainable lunar base in the 2030s. The system will be autonomous, reliable, and efficient. It will use magnetic robots that levitate over a flexible film track to reduce wear and tear from lunar dust. Carts mounted on the robots will move at about 1.61 kilometers per hour and could transport around 100 tons of material a day. The system will be used to transport lunar soil and other materials, as well as natural resources mined on the moon, to and from landing zones, outposts, and other areas of the lunar surface

FLOAT was first proposed in 2021 and is one of six ideas selected for support in the second phase of NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. NIAC develops ideas that could become new space missions

Science fiction has inspired many technologies that are now in use, including:

• Artificial intelligence Once only in science fiction, AI is now a rapidly developing technology with many uses, from mobile phones to military products. 
• Tasers Inspired by the 1911 novel Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle, which featured a boy inventor’s blaster that stunned targets with electricity, NASA engineer Jack Cover created the TASER. 
• 3D printers The concept of 3D printing was first described in a work of fiction in 1945, and a machine to produce reusable material was patented in 1971. 
• Drones Once only in science fiction, drones are now used in many applications, including warehouses. 
• Smartwatches In the 1950s, science fiction authors often gave their characters wrist-based computers to help them on their adventures, inspiring the modern smartwatch. 
• Automatic doors The automatic sliding door was featured in HG Wells’ 1899 serialised story When the Sleeper Wakes, more than 50 years before it was invented. 

Which is a future NASA project?

With the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. We will collaborate with our commercial and international partners and establish sustainable exploration by the end of the decade

What are the four future goals of NASA?

NASA’s historic and enduring purpose is aligned to four major strategic goals: Expand human knowledge through new scientific discoveries. Extend human presence deeper into space and to the Moon for sustainable long-term exploration and utilization. Address national challenges and catalyze economic growth

What is the most famous NASA project?

1: Apollo 11, a Walk on the Moon. Just 20 days after Alan Shepard orbited the Earth, President John F. Kennedy announced the mission that would be NASA’s greatest achievement: America was going to the moon

What is NASA ultimate goal?

NASA’s Mission: Drive advances in science, technology, aeronautics, and space exploration to enhance knowledge, education, innovation, economic vitality, and stewardship of Earth

What are 5 things NASA invented?

Here are just a few NASA inventions you might encounter in your own daily life.

• Cell phone camera. You can thank NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for your ability to take selfies with your phone. … 
• Temper foam. … 
• Cordless vacuums. … 
• Infrared ear thermometer. … 
• Grooved pavement. … 
• Emergency blanket

What are NASA’s new inventions?

NASA Technologies Receive Multiple Nods in TIME Inventions of…

• Improving Air Quality Data. NASA graphic showing basic path of TEMPO scanning. … 
• Making Oxygen on Mars. … 
• Asteroid Sampler. … 
• Quiet Sonic Thumps

What is NASA’s new project in 2024?

The first of a pair of climate satellites designed to study heat emissions at Earth’s poles for NASA is in orbit after lifting off atop Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in Māhia, New Zealand at 7:41…

What is NASA’s new material?

GRX-810 marks a paradigm shift in materials science by combining advanced computational modeling with additive manufacturing. Evidently, this new alloy has immense potential to transform the aerospace industry. It promises lighter, more fuel-efficient aircraft and spacecraft that can endure the harshest environments

How did NASA first start?

On Oct. 1, 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) officially began operations. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the National Aeronautics and Space Act the previous July, creating NASA to lead America’s civilian space program in response to Soviet advances in space exploration

What is NASA’s latest achievement?

In 2023, as NASA pushed the limits of exploration for the benefit of humanity, the agency celebrated astronaut Frank Rubio becoming the first American astronaut to spend more than one year in space; delivered samples from an asteroid to Earth; sent a spacecraft to study a metal-rich asteroid for the first time

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