A Trip to Proxima Centauri and Other Far-Out Ideas NASA Is Exploring

NASA , in its relentless following of space innovation , announced on Thursday the choice of 13 Modern projects for its 2024 Phase I award under the Innovative Advanced Concepts ( NIAC ) course of study . These awards , tot up to $ 175,000 each , are granted to squad proposing forward-looking and unlawful space technologies .

The NIAC programme , known for funding groundbreaking conception , has antecedently chip in to notable missionary station such as theMars Ingenuity helicopterand instruments used in theMarCO deep infinite CubeSats . These undertaking highlight the authoritative purpose that NIAC plays in initiate outer space exploration engineering .

NASA colligate executive Jim Free said in apress release : “ The audacious missionary work NASA attempt for the welfare of man all get as just an melodic theme , and NIAC is responsible for for instigate many of those idea . ”

Artist’s depiction of Mars Aerial and Ground Global Intelligent Explorer (MAGGIE).

Artist’s depiction of Mars Aerial and Ground Global Intelligent Explorer (MAGGIE).Image: Ge-Cheng Zha/NASA

The opt teams will now have access to the agency ’s resource and expert advice to further develop their concepts . Although these labor are not yet prescribed NASA foreign mission , the voltage for future adoption remain . As stated by Free , not all of these construct will vanish , but “ NASA and our partners worldwide can learn from reinvigorated approach and may eventually use engineering science advanced by NIAC . ”

Among the 13 new projects take , the one proposed by Thomas Eubanks of Space Initiatives Inc. , located in Florida , has me the most excited . His team envisions acoordinated fleet of miniature space vehicle setting off for Proxima Centauriwithin this hundred . These autonomous probes , numbering in the grand , would employ innovative optical maser sailcraft and optical maser communication to gather and carry data about our Sun ’s close interstellar neighbor . Traveling at 20 % the speed of light , it would take the string of consecutive launched probe roughly 21 years to hit Proxima Centauri , situate approximately 4.24 light - years away from Earth .

Closer to home , Ge - Cheng Zha of Coflow Jet LLC , also in Florida , has put forward a proposal for the first - ever flight of stairs of a limit - wing , electrical erect parody and landing place ( eVTOL ) aircraft on Mars . This solar - powered aerial fomite , dubbed MAGGIE , would revolutionise the way we search the Red Planet and other alien destinations . The aircraft would be capable of traveling up to 111 miles ( 179 kilometers ) from a fully charge shelling and fly at heights extend to 3,280 feet ( 1,000 meters ) . Over the class of a Martian year , MAGGIE would cover a full aloofness of nearly 9,975 miles ( 16,048 kilometers ) .

Artist’s depiction of Sample Return from the Surface of Venus.

Artist’s depiction of Sample Return from the Surface of Venus.Image: Geoffrey Landis/NASA

While NASA and its international partnershash out a planto rejoinder control surface sample distribution from Mars , Geoff Landis from NASA ’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland is working on something even more ambitious : returning surface samples from Venus . The second major planet from the Sun has an highly harsh environment , with temperatures around 842 degrees F ( 450 degree C ) and insistence 92 times greater than on Earth ’s Earth’s surface , making it one of the most difficult topographic point in the solar system to research . The team proposes using an innovative rocket engine that can create fuel using the atomic number 6 monoxide find in the Venusian atmosphere . The system would be open of hold out the high temperatures and work with a solar - powered aircraft design for Venus ’s conditions .

Other proposition admit technology to allow for moreefficient and long - endure storage of fuel in space(making it easier and more feasible to send crew missions to Mars ) , a system tobreak down and eliminate harmful chemicals , called perchlorate , from the Martian environment , an ISS project tostudyhibernation and its energy - save state , torpor , in microgravity ( for the purpose of facilitating interplanetary outer space travelling ) , and developing Modern technologies forstoring cryogenic propellent , like liquid H , in blank ( for refueling ballistic capsule on crewed missions to Mars and back ) , among others .

Exciting clobber ! Some very ambitious missions , to be sure . It would be great to see these initial sketches evolve into concrete commission and extend our compass in space to even greater extents .

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