News NASA Early stage innovation projects

[Wishbone]

Source: http://www.nasa.gov/offices/oct/early_stage_innovation/niac/2011_phase1_selections.html

Variable Vector Countermeasure Suit (V2Suit) for Space Habitation and Exploration {The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory MA} (?)

Enabling All-Access Mobility for Planetary Exploration Vehicles via Transformative Reconfiguration {North Carolina State University NC} (Too much Michael Bay)

The Potential for Ambient Plasma Wave Propulsion {Ohio Aerospace Institute OH} (Intriguing)

Space Debris Elimination (SpaDE) {Raytheon BBN Technologies VA} ( me wants it!)

Regolith Derived Heat Shield for a Planetary Body Entry and Descent System with In-Situ Fabrication {NASA Kennedy Space Center FL} (a sensible idea!)

Atmospheric Breathing Electric Thruster for Planetary Exploration {Busek Co. Inc. MA} (obviously a dual-use project)

Economical Radioisotope Power {Universities Space Research Association ID} (for all you Pu-238 starved space fans)

Contour Crafting Simulation Plan for Lunar Settlement Infrastructure Build-Up {University of Southern California CA} (not critical, looks like waste of money anyway)

Entanglement-assisted Communication System for NASA's Deep-Space Missions: Feasibility Test and Conceptual Design {University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign IL} (quantum entanglement??)

SPS-ALPHA: The First Practical Solar Power Satellite via Arbitrarily Large PHased Array {Artemis Innovation Management Solutions CA} (say bye bye to oil dependence?)

High-temperature superconductors as electromagnetic deployment and support structures in spacecraft {Massachusetts Institute of Technology MA } (okay, I'll wait and see)

Non-Radioisotope Power Systems For Sunless Solar System Exploration Missions {Pennsylvania State University PA} (Enigmatic, /me wants some explanation)

Spacecraft/Rover Hybrids for the Exploration of Small Solar System Bodies {NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory CA} (aka Jumping Jack Flash)

Ultra-Light “Photonic Muscle” Space Structures {University of Hawaii HI} (details, please)

Low Power Microrobotics Utilizing Biologically Inspired Energy Generation {Naval Research Laboratory DC} (bet they get parallel funding from DARPA)

Printable Spacecraft {NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory CA} (let's start from printable money, shall we?)

In-Space Propulsion Engine Architecture based on Sublimation of Planetary Resources: from exploration robots to NEO mitigation {NASA Kennedy Space Center FL} (with solar energy and a lens?)

Metallic Hydrogen: A Game Changing Rocket Propellant {Harvard University MA} (been there, lost in the first two sets)

Nuclear Propulsion through Direct Conversion of Fusion Energy {MSNW LLC WA} (Orion - the next generation?)

Interplanetary CubeSats: Opening the Solar System to a Broad Community at Lower Cost {NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory CA} (one project cleans debris, another creates more of the same )

Ghost Imaging of Space Objects {NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory CA} (?)

Laser-Based Optical Trap for Remote Sampling of Interplanetary and Atmospheric Particulate Matter {NASA Goddard Space Flight Center MD} (A must have)

Steering of Solar Sails Using Optical Lift Force {Rochester Institute of Technology NY} (anything with the word sail is dear to me)

Aneutronic Fusion Spacecraft Architecture {University of Houston at Clear Lake TX} (architecture means we don't know how to do propulsion: PFFFT!)

Radiation Shielding Materials Containing Hydrogen, Boron, and Nitrogen: Systematic Computational and Experimental Study {NASA Langley Research Center VA} (not really a breakthrough innovation, but all centers have to get some portion of the pie)

Meeting the Grand Challenge of Protecting Astronaut's Health: Electrostatic Active Space Radiation Shielding for Deep Space Missions {NASA Langley Research Center VA} (grandiloquent, but definitely worth funding)

Proposal for a Concept Assessment of a Fission Fragment Rocket Engine (FFRE) Propelled Spacecraft {NASA Marshall Space Flight Center AL} (okay)

Radiation Protection and Architecture Utilizing High Temperature Superconducting Magnets {NASA Johnson Space Center TX} (a worthy topic)

Technologies Enabling Exploration of Skylights, Lava Tubes and Caves {Astrobotic Technology Inc. PA} (great stuff)

Optimal Dispersion of Near-Earth Objects {Iowa State University IA} (nice)

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