Smart spacesuits and solar surfing may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but they are just two of the technology concepts NASA has selected for further research as part of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. The program will fund 18 studies to determine the feasibility of early-stage technologies that could go on to change what’s possible in space.
The funded technologies have the potential to transform human and robotic exploration of other worlds, including the Moon and Mars. One researcher, for example, will study an affordable way to mine the ample ice at the Moon’s polar regions. NASA aims to send astronauts to land on the Moon’s South Pole in five years.
Two studies were chosen from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, including a Venus lander charged by a floating power generator, and a fleet of small satellites that could explore the edges of the solar system and beyond.
Image above: NASA has selected two new concepts from JPL for future mission ideas, including a small satellite that could fly to the outer edges of the solar system. In this photo, a set of Earth-observing CubeSats launch from the International Space Station in 2014. Image Credit: NASA.
“Our NIAC program nurtures visionary ideas that could transform future NASA missions by investing in revolutionary technologies,” said Jim Reuter, acting associate administrator of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. “We look to America’s innovators to help us push the boundaries of space exploration with new technology.”
The latest NIAC selections include Phase I and Phase II awards. The selected Phase I studies cover a wide range of innovations. Each Phase I award is valued at approximately $125,000, helping researchers define and analyze their proposed concepts over nine months. If the initial feasibility studies are successful, awardees can apply for Phase II awards.
Image above: A Venus lander charged by a floating power station is one of the JPL concepts chosen by NASA. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
SmartSuit: An intelligent spacesuit design with soft-robotics, self-healing skin and data collection for extravehicular activity in extreme environments that allows for greater mobility for exploration missions: https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2019_Phase_I_Phase_II/SmartSuit/ Ana Diaz Artiles, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, College Station
Micro-Probes Propelled and Powered by Planetary Atmospheric Electricity (MP4AE): Similar to the ballooning capabilities of spiders, these floating microprobes use electrostatic lift to study planetary atmospheres: https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2019_Phase_I_Phase_II/MP4AE/ Yu Gu, West Virginia University, Morgantown
Ripcord Innovative Power System (RIPS): An investigation of a drag using ripcord unspooling power system for descent probes into planets with atmospheres, such as Saturn: https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2019_Phase_I_Phase_II/RIPS/ Noam Izenberg, Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, Maryland
Phase II studies allow researchers to further develop concepts, refine designs and start considering how the new technology would be implemented. This year’s Phase II selections address a range of cutting-edge concepts from flexible telescopes to new heat-withstanding materials. Awards under Phase II can be worth as much as $500,000 for two-year studies.
The 2019 Phase II selections are:
The High Étendue Multiple Object Spectrographic Telescope (THE MOST): A new, flexible optical telescope design that can be a deployed in a cylindrical roll and installed upon delivery, on a 3D printed structure: https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2019_Phase_I_Phase_II/The_Most/ Tom Ditto, 3DeWitt LLC, Ancramdale, New York
NASA selected Phase I and II proposals through a peer-review process that evaluates innovativeness and technical viability. All projects are still in the early stages of development, most requiring a decade or more of concept maturation and technology development.
For the first time this summer, the NIAC program will select one Phase III research study. The award will be up to $2 million for as long as two years. This final phase is designed to strategically transition a NIAC concept with the highest potential impact to NASA, other government agencies or commercial companies.
“NIAC is about going to the edge of science fiction, but not over,” said Jason Derleth, NIAC program executive. “We are supporting high impact technology concepts that could change how we explore within the solar system and beyond.”
NIAC partners with forward-thinking scientists, engineers and citizen inventors from across the nation to help maintain America’s leadership in aeronautics and space research. NIAC is funded by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, which is responsible for developing the cross-cutting, pioneering new technologies and capabilities needed by the agency to achieve its current and future missions.
NASA successfully launched the Auroral Zone Upwelling Rocket Experiment or AZURE mission on April 5 from the Andøya Space Center in Norway.
Image above: An aurora is seen dancing across the night sky prior the launch of AZURE rockets at the Andøya Space Center in Norway. Image Credits: NASA/Lee Wingfield.
Two Black Brant XI-A sounding rockets were launched at 6:14 and 6:16 p.m. EDT on April 5 carrying scientific instruments for studying the energy exchange within an aurora.
The AZURE mission is designed to make measurements of the atmospheric density and temperature with instruments on the rockets and deploying visible gas tracers, trimethyl aluminum (TMA) and a barium/strontium mixture, which ionizes when exposed to sunlight. The vapors were released over the Norwegian Sea at 71 through 150 miles altitude.
Image above: One of two Black Brant XI rockets leaves the launch pad at the Andøya Space Center in Norway. Image Credits: NASA/Lee Wingfield.
These mixtures, using substances similar to those found in fireworks, created colorful clouds that allow researchers to track the flow of neutral and charged particles with the auroral wind. By tracking the movement of these colorful clouds via ground-based photography and triangulating their moment-by-moment position in three dimensions, AZURE will provide valuable data on the vertical and horizontal flow of particles in two key regions of the ionosphere over a range of different altitudes.
Many people believe the Earth’s atmosphere “ends” some 20-30 miles above the ground. However, the air we breathe does not abruptly end at some predefined point — instead, it gradually thins. At 150 to 200 miles above Earth, the “air” is extremely thin and these vapor clouds disperse rapidly and follow the winds which can be moving at a few hundred miles per hour.
AZURE is one of nine missions being conducted as part of the Grand Challenge Initiative (GCI) – Cusp, a series of international sounding rocket missions planned for launch in 2018 – 2020.
Image above: Colorful clouds formed by the release of vapors from the two AZURE rockets allow scientist to measure auroral winds. Image Credits: NASA/Lee Wingfield.
NASA and U.S. scientists are joining those from Norway, Japan, Canada and other countries to investigate the physics of heating and charged particle precipitation in this region called the geomagnetic cusp — one of the few places on Earth with easy access to the electrically charged solar wind that pervades the solar system.
NASA previously conducted two missions in December 2018 and two in January 2019 as part of the Initiative. The final two NASA missions — the Cusp Heating Investigation and the Cusp Region Experiment — are scheduled for November 2019.
More information on NASA’s use of vapor tracers in scientific studies is available at:
AZURE is supported through NASA’s Sounding Rocket Program at the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. NASA’s Heliophysics Division manages the sounding rocket program.
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