A protective magnetic force field, self-assembling space habitat and a deep sleep chamber. These may seem like concepts straight out of science fiction, but they are quite real and are actually three of eight projects that NASA will be working on in order to improve space exploration.
NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) is the agency's annual program that is responsible for funding such concepts. According to NASA, the one thing that all of these concepts have in common is their ability to "change the possible." However, it's not enough to change the possible- they actually have to be technically sound. Many projects were screened through NIAC's Phase II program, and only eight made the cut, all of which - as mentioned before - are aimed at making mankind's journey through the stars easier.
Here are three of the more notable projects approved by NIAC:
Growth-Adapted Tensegrity Structures
The easiest way to travel further in space is to have outposts to stop at along the way. Instead of a single long journey to and from their destination, astronauts can stop at several outposts mid-journey for whatever business needs taking care of. The early stage Growth-Adapted Tensegrity Structures would do just that by seeding chosen outpost points with building robots that could both build rotating initial outpost points and modify them for future use. For now, the plans are starting off small, with the project looking only at outposts outside of the lunar orbit. Later on however, researchers hope to have these structures be built almost anywhere.
With all this talk about terraforming and colonizing Mars, it seems as if any have forgotten a cruicial step that comes before it: landing on the red planet without crashing or burning up. This magnetoshell aims to tackle this problem by surrounding a Mars-bound spacecraft with a manetic shell when it approaches Mars' atmosphere. Researchers hope that the interaction between the shell and the atmosphere would result in something akin to a second set of brakes, which would slow down the craft enough so that the actual landing protocol wouldn't require as much fuel. Researchers are looking at how the Magnetoshell might work on manned missions for Mars, as well as on unmmaned probes elsewhere (Neptune, for example).
The Vision System Torpor Habitat Design
This project differs from the other two projects mentioned in the sense that it focuses on what astronauts themselves do on the way to their destination, rather than what the spacecrafts do in deep space. One of the biggest concerns that people often cite when talking about visiting other planets is the time that it would get to reach them, especially when considering that the distance between Earth and other planets can change depending on where they are in orbit. For example, the distance between Earth and Mercury can be as low as 77 million km and as high as 222 million km. Faster travel isn't possible yet, but this deep sleep chamber is the next best thing, allowing astronauts to spend a large portion of their journey asleep. Researchers do note, however, that this isn't a cryo-sleep chamber, rather the chamber will medically support astronauts who are in deep sleep.
As mentioned before, these are only three of the projects that will receive up to $500,000 to develop their concepts further for two more years. The other approved projects can be seen HERE.
