NASA Is Funding , the Projects of the Future.
Last week, NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts
(NIAC) program announced grants for 14 teams
exploring high-risk, high-reward projects.
'Wired' reports that some of the projects, like a lunar oxygen pipeline or new building material for
use on Mars, could be technological game changers.
These are things looking 20 to 30 years
down the road to see how we could
drastically improve or enable
new types of NASA missions, Mike LaPoint, NASA's Innovative
Advanced Concepts (NIAC), via 'Wired'.
The $175,000 grants will be used to
lay out detailed plans, run tests and design
new prototypes based off of Phase 1 projects.
The select few chosen to go on
to Phase 2 will receive $600,000
for an additional two-year study.
A single exceptional project will then
receive an award of $2 million to enter into
another two-year long Phase 3 study.
According to 'Wired,' one of the most interesting
projects is a proposal to build a habitat out of
fungi and bacteria grown on the surface of Mars.
A University of Nebraska team is exploring
the idea of self-growing building blocks
using minerals formed within a bioreactor.
Another NIAC winner has proposed building a massive
pipeline on the surface of the moon to deliver
much-needed oxygen to astronauts on a future lunar base.
'Wired' reports that the new tech will create
oxygen as a byproduct of mining for water
ice utilizing a process called electrolysis