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NASA advances lunar crater modeling and asteroid mining projects
NASA doesn't just want to return to the moon by 2024, it also wants to establish a "sustained human presence" and to use the moon as a hub for future Mars exploration. In order to do that, it will need new ideas and technologies, like those solicited and supported by the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. Today, NIAC moved two projects to Phase III, the furthest any concepts have made it.
NASA is funding a deep sleep chamber and other crazy concepts
NASA is setting aside money to fund the most ambitious and odd-but-interesting projects that made it through NIAC's first phase. NIAC or NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) is the agency's annual program that welcomes submissions from forward-thinking scientists. The agency has chosen eight from the 13 phase 1 concepts, including a deep sleep chamber that astronauts can use for missions to Mars, the moon and places much farther than Earth's orbit.
NASA is funding asteroid spaceships and other far-out concepts
NASA's annual National Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program awards money to some of the craziest space projects you'll ever see, and this year is no different. The space agency has just announced the 13 concepts that made it through Phase I, and one of the most interesting entries plans to transform whole asteroids into spaceships. It's called Reconstituting Asteroids into Mechanical Automata or Project RAMA. The concept is the brainchild of Jason Dunn, co-founder of Made In Space, which developed the 3D printer that's aboard the ISS.
