NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program Updates
NASA is investing in technology concepts that include meteoroid impact detection, space telescope swarms, and small orbital debris mapping technologies that may one day be used for future space exploration missions.
The agency selected
25 early-stage technology proposals that have the potential to transform future human and robotic exploration missions, introduce new exploration capabilities, and significantly improve current approaches to building and operating aerospace systems.
The 2018 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase I concepts cover a wide range of innovations selected for their potential to revolutionize future space exploration. Phase I awards are valued at approximately $125,000, over nine months, to support initial definition and analysis of their concepts. If these basic feasibility studies are successful, awardees can apply for Phase II awards.
“The NIAC program gives NASA the opportunity to explore visionary ideas that could transform future NASA missions by creating radically better or entirely new concepts while engaging America’s innovators and entrepreneurs as partners in the journey,” said Jim Reuter, acting associate administrator of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. “The concepts can then be evaluated for potential inclusion into our early stage technology portfolio.”
The selected 2018 Phase I proposals are:
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NIAC 2018 Phase I Proposals
Proposals
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Descriptions
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Awardees
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Shapeshifters from Science Fiction to Science Fact: Globetrotting from Titan's Rugged Cliffs to its Deep Seafloors
- Shapeshifter is a novel system concept for all-access and cross-domain mobility on bodies with atmospheres. The proposed robotic platform is capable of mobility across domains including flying in the atmosphere, rolling on a smooth surface, navigating subsurface voids (ex. caves), floating on a lake surface and propelling under an ocean. Shapeshifter is a flying amphibious robot (FAR). It is comprised of smaller robotic units (each referred to as a cobot) which combine to shapeshift into different mobility modes. Each cobot is extremely simple with minimal design consisting of a few propellers as actuators. Shapeshifter can morph into a ball that rolls on the surface, a flight array that can fly & hover above-surface and move in subsurface voids, and a torpedo-like structure to swim under-liquid efficiently, among other mobility modes. In addition to all-access, cross-domain mobility, shapeshifter morphs into other functional systems to carry out a diverse set of tasks. Examples include transporting large and heavy objects, traversing long distances with minimal power consumption, creating communication networks to communicate to surface from deep hard-to-access areas.
|Aliakbar Aghamohammadi, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
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Biobot: Innovative Offloading of Astronauts for More Effective Exploration
- No parameter in the design of spacesuits for planetary exploration is more important than "weight on the back": the weight of the suit system which must be supported by the wearer under the gravity of the Moon or Mars. The added weight of the spacesuit garment andportable life support system (PLSS) drives the required exertion level of the wearer, and ultimately sets limitations on EVA duration, distance traveled on foot, and productivity of the exploration mission.
- It is clear that planetary surface exploration activities would be greatly improved if the astronauts did not have to carry a PLSS to maintain life support functions. At the same time, additional restrictions on crew mobility, limits of access, and operational capabilities would be unacceptable. The concept for this NIAC proposal is to accomplish these two seemingly conflicting requirements through the application of advanced robotic systems to deal with biological requirements (i.e., life support) for the astronauts: the 'BioBot'.
- The design reference scenario for this concept is that astronauts involved in future lunar or Mars exploration will be on the surface for weeks or months rather than days, and will be involved in regular EVA operations. It is not unreasonable to think of geologists spending several days in EVA exploration each week over a prolonged mission duration, with far more ambitious operational objectives than were typical of Apollo. In this scenario, each astronaut will be accompanied by a 'BioBot', which will transport their life support system and consumables, an extended umbilical and umbilical reel, and robotic systems capable of controlling the position and motion of the umbilical. The astronaut will be connected to the robot via the umbilical, carrying only a small emergency openloop life support system similar to those contained in every PLSS. The robotic mobility base will be designed to be capable of traveling anywhere the astronaut can walk, and will also be useful as a transport for the EVA tools, science instrumentation, and collected samples, and potentially carrying the astronaut on traverses as well. Such as system will also be a significant enhancement to public engagement in these future exploration missions, as the robotic vehicles can provide high-resolution cameras and high-bandwidth communications gear to provide high-definition video coverage of each crew throughout each EVA sortie.
- There are also architecture-level benefits to this concept. For example, in the drive to reduce suit weight to the absolute minimum due to the load of the PLSS, design elements which would enhance suit mobility (such as rotary bearings) are frequently deleted, resulting in a lighter but less flexible suit enclosure. By offloading the life support system electrical power, and consumables, the relatively meager increase in garment mass to incorporate these mobility features would be easily accommodated, resulting in not only a lighter, but also more flexible spacesuit system with an overall center of gravity very close to that of the wearer's body. Since the PLSS weight restrictions would be negated by placing the system and its consumables on an accompanying robot, the overall EVA system could easily adapt to longer sorties, higher capacity astronaut cooling systems, or higher levels of redundancy to enhance crew safety and minimize the possibility of a loss-of-crew event. When no longer constrained to fit within the mass and volume constraints of a spacesuit backpack, portable life support designers can consider technology alternatives better suited to extended exploration, such as radiators for cooling, solar panels to extend electrical power, or regenerable CO2 scrubbing systems.
|David Akin, University of Maryland, College Park
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Lofted Environmental and Atmospheric Venus Sensors (LEAVES)
- The LEAVES (Lofted Environmental and Atmospheric VEnus Sensors) concept is an ultra-lightweight, passively-lofted, and inexpensive atmospheric sensor package that is designed to withstand the harsh Venus atmosphere, but which also provides a generic platform for in situ sampling of any planetary body with a prominent atmosphere. This architecture is intended to provide high spatial and temporal resolution during atmospheric sampling by operating in parallel, rather than a more traditional serial approach By removing the need for active propulsion or guidance (as with aircraft) or inflation media and buoyancy control (as with balloons), the LEAVES units require very little infrastructure. Mission science objectives are achieved through the deployment of many identical units over a wide geographic area, cost savings are realized through reusable production lines and commercially-available components, and operational resilience is increased through parallel operations. Moreover, this architecture is exceptionally well suited as a secondary payload as it requires few control resources from ground stations, poses very little risk to a primary payload, and returns data only for the duration of their slow descent through the atmosphere.
|Jeffrey Balcerski, Lofted Environmental and Atmospheric Venus Sensors (LEAVES)
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Meteoroid Impact Detection for Exploration of Asteroids (MIDEA)
- Asteroids contain a wealth of resources including water and precious metals that can be extracted. These resources could be applied to in-space manufacture of products that depend less on material launched from Earth's surface. Within the next few decades, we will likely have the technological capability to retrieve asteroids and bring them to a processing facility near Earth, or to send a processing facility to the asteroid to extract the resources on site. However, a substantial investment is required to accomplish either task. The Meteoroid Impact Detection for Exploration of Asteroids (MIDEA) concept leverages the natural space environment to provide a source of meteoroid impacts, resulting in erosion of the material on the asteroid surface. The material excavated by a meteoroid impact includes solid and molten ejecta, but some of this material is vaporized and ionized, forming a plasma that expands into the environment around the asteroid. This plasma expands outward into space and provides information on the composition of the asteroid surface. MIDEA enables a mission to a 100 to 1000 m near-Earth asteroid (NEA) using a parent spacecraft in the 10 to 50 kg range, carrying a constellation of ten or fewer free-flying sensors that are each approximately 100 g in mass. At this low mass scale, many such missions could be launched in parallel to different asteroids, performing a broad survey of potential targets prior to a dedicated in situ resource utilization (ISRU) mission.
|Sigrid Close, Stanford University
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On-Orbit, Collision-Free Mapping of Small Orbital Debris
- We propose to evaluate the feasibility of mapping small (micron to sub-cm scale) orbital debris in LEO using a fleet of cubesats equipped with sensors to detect the plasma signature of the debris. Small debris is currently undetectable and poses a hazard to spacecraft. Recently discovered precursor plasma solitons excited by fast-moving charged debris in a plasma could enable mapping of small orbital debris by simple sensors on a fleet of cubesats. The proposed technology would revolutionize our interaction with small orbital debris by enabling spacecraft placement in less hazardous orbits as well as quantitative evaluation of mitigation efforts. Additionally, the proposed technology may be applicable to dust detection efforts near other planetary targets. Preliminary calculations indicate that small debris in orbits from 400-1600km altitude could be mapped in less than 1 year using fewer than 100 cubesats. We propose to assess the feasibility of this concept by modeling the precursor solitons produced by sample debris objects of varying velocity and charge, as well as the long-distance propagation of solitons through spatially varying plasma environments. Additionally, we will develop preliminary designs of the cubesat fleet required to map small debris by detecting plasma solitons.
|Christine Hartzell, University of Maryland, College Park
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Marsbee - Swarm of Flapping Wing Flyers for Enhanced Mars Exploration
- The objective of the proposed work is to increase the set of possible exploration and science missions on Mars by investigating thefeasibility of flapping wing aerospace architectures in a Martian environment. The proposed architecture consists of a Mars rover that serves as a mobile base and a swarm of Marsbees. Marsbees are robotic flapping wing flyers of a bumblebee size with cicada sized wings. The Marsbees are integrated with sensors and wireless communication devices. The mobile base can act as a recharging station and main communication center. The swarm of Marsbee can significantly enhance the Mars exploration mission with the following benefits: i) Facilitating reconfigurable sensor networks; ii) Creation of resilient systems; iii) Sample or data collection using single or collaborative Marsbees.
- Key technical innovation includes the use of insect-like compliant wings to enhance aerodynamics and a low power design. High lift coefficients will be achieved by properly achieving dynamic similarity between the bioinspired insect flight regime and the Mars environment. Our preliminary numerical results suggest that a bumblebee with a cicada wing can generate sufficient lift to hover in the Martian atmosphere. Moreover, the power required by the Marsbee will be substantially reduced by utilizing compliant wing structures and an innovative energy harvesting mechanism. Because of the ultra-low Martian density, the power is dominated by the inertial power. A torsional spring mounted at the wing root to temporarily store otherwise wasted energy and reduce the overall inertial power at resonance. Whereas rotary wing concepts are much more mature in both design and control, these two innovations are uniquely suited to bioinspired flapping vehicles and provide flying near the Martian terrain as a viable means of mobility.
- From a systems engineering perspective, the Marsbee offers many benefits over traditional aerospace systems. The smaller volume, designed for the interplanetary spacecraft payload configuration, provides much more flexibility. Also, the Marsbee inherently offers more robustness to individual system failures. Because of its relatively small size and the small volume of airspace needed to test the system, it can be validated in a variety of accessible testing facilities.
- The proposed work combines expertise and talent from the US and Japan in a multidisciplinary program to address fundamental aspects of flapping wing flight in Martian atmosphere. The University of Alabama in Huntsville team will numerically model, analyze, and optimize a flapping flyer for Martian atmospheric conditions. The Japanese team will develop and test a micro flapping robot, uniquely designed and constructed for the low-density atmosphere on Mars. The hummingbird Micro-Air Vehicle (MAV), developed by the Japanese team is one of only a few robotic flappers in the world that can fly on Earth.
- The objective of Phase I is to determine the wing design, motion, and weight that can hover with optimal power in the Mars atmospheric condition using a high-fidelity numerical model and to assess the hummingbird MAV in the Mars conditions. The aerodynamic performance of the hummingbird MAV will be assessed in a vacuum chamber with the air density reduced to the Mars density. Systems engineering optimization will be performed as well for the entire mission. The maneuverability, wind gust rejection, take-off/landing, power implications, remote sensing, and mission optimization will be addressed in Phase II.
|Chang-kwon Kang, University of Alabama, Huntsville
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Rotary Motion Extended Array Synthesis (R-MXAS)
- A large virtual RF aperture is established via a rotating tether affording capability leaps in space-based imaging 1-D sparse real array on a rigid tether and a tethered rotating antenna element continuously create a very large 2-D virtual array. Ultimate array size is limited only by feasibility constraints on length of rigid tether.
- Potential mission applications include:
- Persistent (GEO-based) RF earth imaging (for soil moisture, ocean salinity, surface temp., sea surface wind, etc.)
- Mapping coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from a solar polar orbit
- Any RF remote sensing applications requiring an extra-large aperture
Major tasks:
- Concept Validation and Performance Modeling
- Alternative Approaches Evaluation
- Mission Analysis for Technology Application
|John Kendra, Leidos, Inc.
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PROCSIMA: Diffractionless Beamed Propulsion for Breakthrough Interstellar Missions
- We propose a new and innovative beamed propulsion architecture that enables an interstellar mission to Proxima Centauri with a 42-year cruise duration at 10% the speed of light. This architecture dramatically increases the distance over which the spacecraft is accelerated (compared with laser propulsion) while simultaneously reducing the beam size at the transmitter and probe from 10s of kilometers to less than 10 meters. These advantages translate into increased velocity change (delta-V) and payload mass compared with laser propulsion alone. While primarily geared toward interstellar missions, our propulsion architecture also enables rapid travel to destinations such as Oort cloud objects and the solar gravitational lens at 500 AU.
- The key innovation of our propulsion concept is the application of a combined neutral particle beam and laser beam in such a way that neither spreads or diffracts as the beam propagates. The elimination of both diffraction and thermal spreading is achieved by tailoring the mutual interaction of the laser and particle beams so that (1) refractive index variations produced by the particle beam generate a waveguide effect (thereby eliminating laser diffraction) and (2) the particle beam is trapped in regions of high electric field strength near the center of the laser beam. By exploiting these phenomena simultaneously, we can produce a combined beam that propagates with a constant spatial profile, also known as a soliton. We have thus named the proposed architecture PROCSIMA: Photon-paRticle Optically Coupled Soliton Interstellar Mission Accelerator. Compared with a diffracting laser beam, the PROCSIMA architecture increases the probe acceleration distance by a factor of ~10,000, enabling a payload capability of 1 kg for the 42-year mission to Proxima Centauri.
- The PROCSIMA architecture leverages recent technological advancements in both high-energy laser systems and high-energy neutral particle beams. The former has been investigated extensively by Lubin in the context of conventional laser propulsion, and we assume a similar 50 GW high-energy laser capability for PROCSIMA. Neutral beam technology is also under development, primarily by the nuclear fusion community, for diagnostics and heating of magnetically confined fusion plasmas. By combining known physics with emerging laser and neutral beam technologies, the PROCSIMA architecture creates a breakthrough payload capability for relativistic interstellar missions.
|Chris Limbach, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station
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SPARROW: Steam Propelled Autonomous Retrieval Robot for Ocean Worlds
- We propose to perform a novel investigation into the ability of a propulsively hopping robot to reach targets of high science value on the icy, rugged terrains of Ocean Worlds. The employment of a multi-hop architecture allows for the rapid traverse of great distances, enabling a single mission to reach multiple geologic units within a timespan conducive to system survival in a harsh radiation environment. We further propose that the use of a propulsive hopping technique obviates the need for terrain topographic and strength assumptions and allows for complete terrain agnosticism; a key strength of this concept. The objectives detailed in this proposal will be accomplished through the interdisciplinary collaboration of world leading robotics, propulsion, sample acquisition engineers, and planetary scientists from JPL, Purdue University, and Honeybee Robotics.
|Gareth Meirion-Griffith, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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BALLET: BALloon Locomotion for Extreme Terrain
- We propose a balloon platform with 6 suspended modules each containing a payload that also serves as a foot for locomotion. Each foot is suspended by 3 cables to the balloon to control the placement of the foot on the ground. Only 1 foot/payload is raised at a time to move to a new location on the surface while the remaining feet keep the balloon anchored to the surface. The balloon buoyancy is only needed to lift 1 foot at a time. Feet are moved in sequence to locomote over the surface. The platform is highly stable because its center of gravity is almost at ground level. Images from cameras on the balloon are used to map and locate foot placement and for navigation.
|Hari Nayar, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Myco-architecture off planet: growing surface structures at destination
- A turtle carries its own habitat. While it is reliable, it costs energy. NASA makes the same trade-off when it transports habitats and other structures needed to lunar and planetary surfaces increasing upmass, and affecting other mission goals. Imagine a self-pitching habitat made of a light, fibrous material, with excellent mechanical properties. The material could be used dry, wet, frozen with water or as part of a self-produced composite which could allow such enhancements as radiation protection and a vapor seal. It is self-replicating so the habitat could be extended at a future date, and self-repairing. Some form of this material could be used for a habitat at destination, additional buildings, the shell of multiple rovers and furniture. The fibrous material is fungal mycelium, the vegetative structure of fungi consisting of branching, thread-like hyphae. Mycelial materials, already commercially produced, are known insulators, fire retardant, and do not produce toxic gasses. Metrics for these materials show compression strengths superior to dimensional lumber, flexural strength superior to reinforced concrete, and competitive insulation values. As mycelia normally excrete enzymes, it should be possible to bioengineer them to secrete other materials on demand such as bioplastics or latex to form a biocomposite. Mycelia are more flexible and ductile than regolith alone. As a standalone material or in conjunction with agglutinated or sintered regolith, a mycotectural building envelope could significantly reduce the energy required for building because in the presence of food stock and water it would grow itself. After the arrival of humans, additional structures could be grown with feedstock of mission-produced organic waste streams. Melanin-rich fungi have the ability to absorb radioactivity suggesting that melanized fungal mycelia could provide radiation protection. Lead found in the regolith, or other radiation blocking materials such as water could accumulate in the mycelia providing additional radiation protection. When protected, the mycomaterials can have a long life, but at the end of its life cycle the material could be become fertilizer for mission farming.
- Our concept fits within the Mars DRA 5.0 'commuter' scenario, with the major difference being that the habitats and the shells of the rovers would be built at destination. On Earth, a flexible plastic shell produced to the final habitat dimensions would be seeded with mycelia and dried feedstock and the outside sterilized. At destination, the shell could be configured to its final inner dimensions with struts. The mycelial and feedstock material would be moistened with Martian or terrestrial water depending on mass trade-offs, and heated, initiating fungal (and living feedstock) growth. Mycelial growth will cease when feedstock is consumed, heat withdrawn or the mycelia heat-killed. If additions or repairs to the structures are needed, water, heat and feedstock can be added to reactivate growth of the dormant fungi.
- The proposed work focuses on filling select key technical knowledge gaps such as the temperature range of mycelial growth, radiation protection, potential for algal feedstock and enmeshed biosensors, mass of inputs and finished product, and material properties of the materials. The potential for enhancing structural and sensing capabilities by the incorporation of the bacterium Bacillus subtilus, is novel. Architectural design concepts based on this vision will be examined for use in a mission context including mass trade-offs, and temperature inputs, as well as suggesting new terrestrial routes to infusion where rapidly built, lightweight structures are desired. If successful in developing a biocomposite material that can grow itself, NASA will have a radically new, cheaper, faster lighter material for designing habitats for extended duration lunar missions, Mars missions, and mobile habitats as well as furniture and other structures.
|Lynn Rothschild, NASA Ames Research Center
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Modular Active Self-Assembling Space Telescope Swarms
- We propose a modular, self-assembling architecture enabling the construction of 30+ m diameter, reflective, space telescopes with active optics. The entire structure of the telescope, including the primary and secondary mirrors, secondary support structure and planar sunshield will be constructed from a single, mass-produced spacecraft module. Each module will be composed of a hexagonal ~1 m diameter spacecraft topped with an edge-to-edge, active mirror assembly. The mirror will have at least thirty degrees of freedom, driven by mechanical actuators, so that the assembled primary and secondary mirrors will be fully active and can be phased and given the appropriate shape post-assembly. Modules will be launched independently as payloads of opportunity, and navigate to the Sun-Earth L2 point using a deployable solar sail. The solar sails will then become the planar telescope sunshield during telescope assembly, which will proceed autonomously with no additional human or robotic intervention.
- The target mission concept is a large-aperture implementation of the Large Ultraviolet/Optical/Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR), which has been highlighted in the NASA Astrophysics roadmap and is currently being studied for the 2020 decadal survey. In the NIAC Phase I, we propose to carry out detailed simulations of the spacecraft flight and rendezvous dynamics in order to set requirements on the solar sail area and loading, along with analyses of the mirror assembly to validate the ability to achieve the required surface figure in the assembled primary and secondary mirrors.
- This proposal is directly in line with the priorities of the NASA Technology Roadmaps in Science Instruments, Observatories, and Sensor Systems and Robotics and Autonomous Systems. This architecture provides a credible path to the construction of a giant space telescope, which would be infeasible using the design and assembly techniques employed for previous generations of space telescopes including Hubble and James Webb. A space-based aperture of this scale would enable transformative and unprecedented science, including mapping the distribution of surface cover on Earth-like planets, resolved imaging of stellar populations over a span of 10 billion years, dark energy/dark matter searches, and much more. The demonstration of on-orbit autonomous assembly will also be directly applicable to a host of other NASA missions and of value to the broader aerospace community.
|Dmitry Savransky, Cornell University
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Astrophysics and Technical Study of a Solar Neutrino Spacecraft
- Both spacecraft and detector technology capable of operating close to the Sun would be achieved through this proposed NIAC project. This technology is needed to study our Sun's solar interior for the purpose of better understanding our Sun, its future expected changes such as long term forecasting of solar energy output, as well as understanding fundamental physics such as nuclear fusion reaction rates, Dark Matter searches, Particle Physics Neutrino Oscillations and Nuclear Physics Matter effects of Neutrino interaction.
- On the Earth the solar intensity of neutrinos is very low, but by going very close to the Sun in a close solar orbit of seven solar Radii the neutrino rate can be 1,000 times higher. In this NIAC project a small detector inside the de-coherence neutrino radius would be evaluated to explore its science potential for studying the interior nuclear reactions of the Sun. Unlike light from the Sun, which comes from the same Nuclear fusion reactions inside the nuclear furnace core but that take energy 50,000 to 100,000 years to reach the surface, neutrinos, which weakly interact, with matter, come directly out of the solar core very quickly and they will tell us much more about the current solar interior than measuring any other particle emitted from the Sun.
- This proposed new NIAC concept comes with some challenges for both the spacecraft and detector design. First, current neutrino technologies are limited and large detectors are needed to make a small number of measurements. Also, all current neutrino detection technology options are Earth-based and have never flown in space. NASA has managed to do new science by using a simple technology such as the EGRET spark-chamber satellite flown in 1992. Once NASA put this satellite into an orbit high above the Earth, a new window into the universe of high-energy gamma rays was opened for scientific study.
- By advancing and developing neutrino detector technology which will fly and operate in outer space, a novel opportunity to study the Sun will be created, one that will enhance our ability to predict both long-term Solar output and Solar storms as well as to perform fundamentally new science studies that are currently unattainable. Wichita State University proposes this joint project involving NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Astrophysics Center leader and the Advanced Concepts Engineering office along with South Dakota State University. The proposed NIAC project will enable an initial evaluation of technological challenges through simulations addressing the aspects of background event rejection, shielding and various possible options for neutrino signal identification.
|Nickolas Solomey, Wichita State University
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Advanced Diffractive MetaFilm Sailcraft
- The abundant untapped momentum of solar photons is becoming increasingly attractive as a means to propel spacecraft with an attached solar sail. Decades of theoretical mission studies have examined how microscopically thin films ranging from meters to kilometers in extent may make use of freely available sunlight for near-Earth, interplanetary, and interstellar space travel. In nearly all cases a reflective metal-coated film was the presumed mechanism for photon-to-sail momentum transfer. Here we describe an attractive and innovative alternative that makes use of the recently matured design and fabrication of meta-materials: Diffractive Sails. Advances in the design and fabrication of broadband high-efficiency single diffraction order gratings and active electro-optic control schemes may make diffractive sails superior to reflective sails for orbit raising or lowering, station keeping, and other mission types. The proposed new aerospace architecture could, for example, provide a low cost and efficient means for raising hundreds of LEO CubeSats and other satellites to higher orbits. Such satellites are becoming of great US importance for science, security, and commercial purposes. Experiments, numerical modeling, and roadmap development are proposed. The project will explore the superior radiation pressure force combined with a significant reduction in atmospheric drag in LEO for a diffractive sail compared to a reflective one. The potential to raise (as well as de-orbit or station keep) hundreds of CubeSats from low-cost very-low Earth orbit would be a recognized game changer that would build enthusiasm and advocacy amongst the growing small satellite community of students, entrepreneurs, and aerospace scientists and engineers. Diffractive films provide an innovative approach that will widely affect future solar and laser driven sailing. This proposal represents the first step toward those innovations, raising the TRL from 1 to 3.
|Grover Swartzlander, Rochester Institute of Technology
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Spectrally-Resolved Synthetic Imaging Interferometer
- A new architecture for spectrally resolved long baseline interferometry is presented. Utilization of a frequency comb reference allows coherent detection and digitization of the optical field within the full spectrum of the frequency comb. The broadband, coherent nature of the frequency comb allows narrow frequency channels to be down-converted to and measured at RF frequencies, and coherently added in the digital domain -- resulting in an SNR that is comparable to that of traditional direct detection interferometers, but without the need for nanometer scale optical path length control for beam combination purposes or the Terabit/sec data rates necessary for sampling the optical field directly.
- Spectral sensitivity of the system allows radial velocimetry measurements sensitive to redshift on the order of several Hz, which is sufficient to resolve relative velocity change on the order of mm/sec. Direct spectroscopic measurements with this system will be sensitive enough to detect the presence water, methane, and other compounds with absorption features within the frequency comb spectrum. Due to the nature of this broadband coherent detection scheme, all spectral information is inherently present in all measured data, allowing simultaneous imaging, velocimetry, and spectroscopy measurements.
- This paradigm shifting technology will provide extreme spatial resolution as well as direct spectroscopic and radial velocimetry measurements without the need for THz processing or nanometer class positional stability and control.
|Jordan Wachs, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation
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Radioisotope Positron Propulsion
- Current state of the art in-space propulsion systems based on chemical or ion propellants fail to meet requirements of 21st century space missions. Antimatter is a candidate mechanism for a propulsion system that could transport humans and/or robotic systems with drastically reduced transit times, providing quicker scientific results, increasing the payload mass to allow more capable instruments and larger crews, and reducing the overall mission cost. Unfortunately, previous propulsion concepts relied on unrealistic amounts of trapped antimatter - orders of magnitude away from any near-term capability. The goal of this effort is to determine the feasibility of a (TRL 1-2) radioisotope positron catalyzed fusion propulsion concept that does not rely on trapped antimatter. Such a transformative technology inspires and drives further innovation within the aerospace community and can be applied to a relevant mission - the bulk retrieval of an entire asteroid into translunar space - a mission of great scientific and commercial interest (e.g. asteroid mining). The idea of harnessing resources from asteroids goes back more than a century to Tsiolkovsky. Fundamentally, for asteroid mining to become financially viable, the cost of the retrieval spacecraft must be less than the value gained from the asteroid. Therefore, developing technology (e.g. efficient propulsion systems) that decreases the mass and complexity of the retrieval spacecraft must be a priority.
|Ryan Weed, Positron Dynamics
“The 2018 Phase I competition was especially fierce, with over 230 proposals and only 25 winners,” said Jason Derleth, NIAC program executive. “I can’t wait to see what the new NIAC Fellows can do for NASA!”
Phase II studies allow awardees time to refine their designs and explore aspects of implementing the new technology. This year’s Phase II portfolio addresses a range of leading-edge concepts, including a breakthrough propulsion architecture for interstellar precursor missions, a large scale space telescope, novel exploration tools for Triton, and Mach effect gravity assist drive propulsion.
Awards under Phase II of the NIAC program can be worth as much as $500,000 for two-year studies, and allow proposers to further develop Phase I concepts that successfully demonstrated initial feasibility and benefit.
The selected 2018 Phase II proposals are:
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NIAC 2018 Phase II Proposals
Proposals
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Descriptions
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Awardees
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Pulsed Fission-Fusion (PuFF) Propulsion Concept
- The pulsed fission fusion propulsion (PuFF) system envisions using a pulsed z-pinch to compress a fission-fusion target. The resulting deflagration expands against a magnetic nozzle to produce thrust and generate recharge energy for the next pulse. A z-Pinch is a device that is commonly used to compress laboratory plasmas to high pressures (~1 Mbar) for very short timescales (~100 ns). An electrical discharge produces a high axial current along the outer surface of a column of plasma; this current in turn generates a very strong toroidal magnetic field. This self-generated magnetic field interacts with the axial current via the Lorentz force and radially compresses the plasma column, bringing it to very high densities and temperatures. This team is exploring a modified Z-pinch geometry as a propulsion system by encasing the fission- fusion target in a sheath of liquid lithium, providing a current return path. Numerical esults have been promising, the level of compression is sufficient to reach fission criticality. The fission energy boosts the fusion reaction rate, generating more neutrons which boost the fission process. This concept will potentially reach specific impulses of 30,000 sec with thrust levels sufficient to travel to Mars in a month and to interstellar space in a few decades.
|Robert Adams, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
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A Breakthrough Propulsion Architecture for Interstellar Precursor Missions
- Our breakthrough architecture uses a kilometer-scale, multi-hundred-megawatt phased-array laser to beam power to a vehicle that converts it to electrical power for a multi-megawatt electric propulsion system that produces a specific impulse of 58,000 s. Such a system would enable missions with characteristic velocities of 100 to 200 km/s, and would enable a mission to the solar gravity lens location of 550 AU in less than 15 years. Our Phase I study investigated all of the key assumption made in the original proposal including: the feasibility of developing photovoltaic arrays with an areal density of 200 g/m^2; the feasibility of developing a highpower electric propulsion system with a specific power of less than 0.3 kg/kW; the feasibility of developing photovoltaic cells tuned to the frequency of the laser with efficiencies of greater than 50%; and the feasibility of being able to point the laser array with the required accuracy and stability necessary to perform the reference mission to the solar gravity lens location. The Phase I work identified plausible approaches for achieving each of these technology goals. In addition, the Phase I work looked at the system engineering of the entire propulsion system architecture with the objective of minimizing the laser aperture size. The original proposal postulated the existence of a phased-array laser with a 10-km diameter aperture, a 100-MW output power at a laser frequency of 1064 nm. This laser was assumed to power a 70-MW electric propulsion vehicle with a 175-m diameter photovoltaic array directly coupled to lithium-fueled ion thrusters operating at a specific impulse of 58,000 s. The Phase I scaling work indicated that a better approach would be a laser with a 2-km diameter aperture with an output power of 400 MW at a laser frequency of 300 nm driving a vehicle with a 110-m diameter photovoltaic array powering a 10 MW electric propulsion system at a specific impulse of 40,000 s. In Phase II we propose to continue to develop the Phase I concept in the context of the solar gravity lens mission. We will address the stilloutstanding technical feasibility issues including: (1) Demonstrating that photovoltaic (PV) coupons can be operated at more than 6 kV in the plasma environment created by the lithium-ion propulsion system. (2) Demonstrating PV cell efficiency of 50% or greater for monochromatic inputs. (3) Modeling the characteristic of the lithium plasma plume created by the ion propulsion system. (4) Demonstrating operation of a small aperture (0.3 m to 1 m dia.), low power (a few hundred watts) phased array with long a coherence length and beacon feedback that is scalable to large apertures. (5) Investigation of beacon phase locking for long round-trip light time delays. (6) Investigating laser location impacts on cross-track thrust. Finally, the proposed Phase II work will develop a technology roadmap including technology demonstration missions recommended as stepping stones to get to the final system architecture.
|John Brophy, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Kilometer Space Telescope (KST)
- A Kilometer Space Telescope (KST) will provide over three times the diameter and ten times the collecting area of the Arecibo groundbased radio telescope with diffraction-limited performance at optical, infrared, and millimeter wavelengths. This capability is orders of magnitude improvement over the Hubble (HST) and James Webb (JWST) instruments. This Phase 2 NIAC proposal extends Phase 1 technology to measure the optical performance at the meter laboratory scale to predict the performance of a one-kilometer space telescope. Each aspect of the technology, science, development, and mission science will be examined to produce these products:
- Science Requirements
- Lab Measurement of spherical primary optical quality
- Telescope Architectural Trades
- Telescope Design
- Telescope Performance modeling
- Launch and deployment methodology
- Mission Operations
- Science Data Reduction
- Simulated Science data, imagery, and results
- Development and Deployment Plan for KST
- Mission Plan
Dramatic increases in resolution and sensitivity will enable breakthrough science in the discovery and study of terrestrial planets, including spectroscopic search for signatures of life and intelligent life, and the study of some of the very early light emitting objects in the universe. Unlike other proposed approaches to kilometer class apertures such as interferometers or the Aragoscope, which are all photon starved, the filled aperture KST will be photon rich. A KST would revolutionize astronomy in ways we cannot now imagine. For example, no one predicted that the most stunning images from HST would be of Planetary Nebulae. And HST was only one order of magnitude finer than its predecessors. We will certainly spend more time in Phase II looking at what might be some of the driving science issues, but for now we simply state that the KST will give us an unparalleled new view of the Universe. Wherever it looks it will make new discoveries. A detailed set of lab experiments will demonstrate the viability of excised portions of spheres as primary mirrors. Optical performance will be measured interferometrically. We will study both passive and active ways to maintain diffraction-limited performance and to offer both wide field search and narrow filed detailed study modes of operation. The enabling technology also can be used for sun shades for the KST itself, as well as star shades for coronagraphic examination of terrestrial exoplanets. An early use of this technology could even be to launch star shades for use with JWST. It is possible to deploy structures 100 million times the volume of the launch vehicle payload bay, so in fact a large number of star shades for JWST could be deployed simultaneously, speeding surveys of star planetary systems. As noted in the Phase 1 report, the technology could also be used for large solar sails or habitats.
|Devon Crowe, Raytheon
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Dismantling Rubble Pile Asteroids with AoES (Area-of-Effect Soft-bots)
- This proposal seeks to continue development of a new type of soft robotic spacecraft that is specifically designed to move and operate efficiently on the surface of, and in proximity to, rubble pile asteroids. These spacecraft are termed Area-of-Effect Soft-bots (AoES) for their large, flexible surface area that provides three key advantages for this environment: it conforms to the surface to provide adhesion-based anchoring; it enables surface mobility via crawling without pushing itself off the asteroid; it enables fuel-free orbit and hopping control using solar radiation pressure (SRP) forces. The central bus of AoES contain a mechanism to liberate material from the asteroid and launch it off the surface. The purpose of these radical new robots is to enable a realistic and robust in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) mission to a near-Earth asteroid (NEA). In this concept, one or more AoES would be deployed from an orbiting spacecraft to the surface of the target asteroid. The AoES will move after landing to find and liberate desirable material, which is then launched from the surface for collection by the orbiting resource processing spacecraft. In Phase I, significant strides were made across a variety of topics to prove the basic feasibility of the AoES concept. Most significantly: an initial AoES design and model was created; HASEL actuators will be used in the soft actuation surfaces; AoES will incorporate electroadhesion to ensure sufficient anchoring; orbit and hopping control with SRP is feasible for the AoES design. The proposed Phase II study will build on the momentum of the Phase I study to continue reducing the chief risks of a feasible AoES design. To this end, we will address the following primary objectives:
- Testing of adhesive anchoring with asteroid regolith simulants
- HASEL actuator refinement for asteroid environment
- Regolith digging/launching system design and mechanics
- Thermal control to ensure operational soft robotic material temperatures
- Robust navigation and control for landing and hopping
- Landing simulation - investigation of energy absorption
- Testing and demonstration of actuated soft robotic legs
Addressing these objectives will result in the advancement of two areas of research with a potentially massive future impact: asteroid mining and soft robotics in space. The work will be carried out by a collaboration between the labs of PI McMahon and Co-I Keplinger, who invented the HASEL actuators. This project will also support a 2-year Aerospace Graduate Projects class of 20+ MS students who will carry out system design, manufacturing and testing tasks. Development of AoES has the potential to drastically improve the capabilities of harvesting water and other resources from the variety of small, plentiful, easily accessible NEAs - enabling further exploration and economic profit in the solar system.
|Jay McMahon, University of Colorado, Boulder
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Triton Hopper: Exploring Neptune's Captured Kuiper Belt Object
- Phase II for the Triton Hopper will focus on retiring the risks identified in Phase I and providing better detail and alternate conceptual options. The three main risks to be addressed include Triton hopper mission, propellant collection, and propulsion performance. For the Triton mission both delivery to Triton in a timely manner ~ 15 yrs and safe takeoff and landing of the hopper on the Triton terrain will be explored. For propellant collection a bevameter experiment will be performed on a small sample of frozen nitrogen to assess ways to best gather the frozen nitrogen propellant. For the propulsion performance ways will be explored to heat the propellant to higher temperatures and or to reduce dry mass to enable further hops. Using these three products two Compass concurrent engineering runs will be performed; the first of which focusses on integrating the findings of mission/propellant collection and the second on integrating the findings which increase hop distance. Phase II will end with roadmapping technology development solutions as well as using such techniques for other icy worlds to gather propellants for hopping.
|Steven Oleson, NASA Glenn Research Center
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Spacecraft Scale Magnetospheric Protection from Galactic Cosmic Radiation
- An optimal shielding configuration has been realized during the phase I study, and it is referred to as a Magnetospheric Dipolar Torus (MDT). This configuration has the singular ability to deflect the vast majority of the GCR including HZE ions. In addition, the MDT shields both habitat and magnets eliminating the secondary particle irradiation hazard, which can dominate over the primary GCR for the closed magnetic topologies that have been investigated in the past. MDT shielding also reduces structural, mass and power requirements. For phase II a low cost method for testing shielding on Earth had been devised using cosmic GeV muons as a surrogate for the GCR encountered in space.
- During the phase I study MSNW developed 3-D relativistic particle code to evaluate magnetic shielding of GCR and evaluated a wide range of magnetic topologies and shielding approaches from nested tori to large, plasma- based magnetospheric configurations. It was found that by far the best shielding performance was obtained for the MDT configuration. The plans for phase II include an upgrade of the MSNW particle code to include material activation and a full range of GCR ions and energies. The improved particle code will be employed to characterize and optimize a subscale MDT for shielding GCR-generated muons arriving at the Earth's surface. The subscale MDT will be designed, built, and then perform several shielding tests using the GCR induced muons at various locations and elevations. The intent is to the validate MDT concept and bring it to TRL 4. A detailed design will be carried out for the next stage of development employing High Temperature Superconducting Coils and plans for both structures and space habitat. A substantial effort will be made to find critical NASA and commercial aerospace partners for future testing in Phase III to TRL 5.
|John Slough, MSNW, LLC
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Direct Multipixel Imaging and Spectroscopy of an Exoplanet with a Solar Gravity Lens Mission
- We propose to build upon our Phase I study of a mission to the regions outside our solar system, with the objective of conducting direct high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy of a habitable exoplanet by exploiting optical properties of the solar gravitational lens (SGL). A mission to the focal area of the SGL (which lies beyond 548.7 astronomical unites (AU) on the line connecting the center of the exoplanet and that of our Sun, called the focal line of the SGL) carrying a modest telescope and coronagraph could deliver direct megapixel imaging and high-resolution spectroscopy of a habitable Earth-like exoplanet orbiting a host star at a distance of up to 30 parsec.
- The remarkable optical properties of the SGL include major brightness amplification (~1e11 at \lambda=1 um) and extreme angular resolution (~1e-10 arcsec) in a narrow field of view. The entire image of such an exo-Earth is compressed by the SGL into an instantaneous cylinder with a diameter of ~1.3 km in the vicinity of the focal line. Moving outwards while staying within the image, the telescope will take photometric data of the Einstein ring around the Sun formed by the light from the exoplanet and will process the data to reconstruct the image of the exoplanet with a few km-scale resolution of its surface, enough to see its surface features and signs of habitability.
- Under a Phase I NIAC program, we evaluated the feasibility of the SGL-based technique for direct imaging and spectroscopy of an exoplanet and, while several practical constraints have been identified, we have not identified any fundamental limitations. We determined that the foundational technology already exists and has high TRL in space missions and applications. Furthermore, the measurements required to demonstrate the feasibility of remote sensing with the SGL are complementary to rotational tomography measurements and ongoing microlensing investigations, so our effort would provide high-value scientific information to other active astrophysics programs.
- Under the Phase II program, we will continue to advance our understanding of the SGL-based imaging and spectroscopy, improve on the computational methods developed in Phase I, evaluate specific hardware implementations, and ultimately produce a roadmap for the direct high-resolution sensing of exoplanets. We will refine our understanding of mission architectures and the technology roadmap. To that extent, we will refine the Phase I mission concepts: i) a single probe-class spacecraft, ii) a swarm of small and capable spacecraft, iii) a "string-of-pearls" mission concept using multiple sets of moderate size spacecraft, and will consider other concepts, if identified.
- Our main objective for this effort is to study i) how a space mission to the focal region of the SGL may be used to obtain high-resolution direct imaging and spectroscopy of an exoplanet by detecting, tracking, and studying the Einstein ring around the Sun, and ii) how such information could be used to detect signs of life on another planet. We will deliver a list of recommendations on the mission architectures with risk and return trade offs and discuss an enabling technology development program. The resulting mission concept could allow exploration of exoplanets relying on the SGL capabilities decades, if not centuries, earlier than possible with other extant technologies.
- Phase II will provide us with a clear understanding of the scientific value of the mission and the trades needed to define the most cost-effective mission design and architecture. If no showstoppers will be identified, we will have all the needed tools and mission rationale to present the SGL imaging mission to the science community for a broader support. As the concept may be the only way to view a potentially habitable exoplanet in detail, it would generate the public interest and enthusiasm that could motivate the needed government and private funding.
|Slava Turyshev, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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NIMPH: Nano Icy Moons Propellant Harvester
- According to the decadal study, a key component of the next 10 years of exploration will be sample return missions. However, these missions are exponentially more expensive than traditional exploration missions because they need two times the delta-V, resulting in exponential growth of its initial mass due to the rocket equations. A key to offsetting this increased cost is through in-situ resource utilization and miniaturization.
- The NIMPH project develops a micro-ISRU system for producing LOx and LH2 for return propellant. The system takes advantage of developments in the cubesat arena to reduce the dry mass of the ISRU system by 90% compared to current systems. This will allow missions to refuel at their destinations, such as Europa, Mars and the Lunar poles, drastically reducing the size and cost of the mission.
|Michael VanWoerkom, ExoTerra Resource
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Mach Effect for In Space Propulsion: Interstellar Mission
- We propose to study the implementation of an innovative thrust producing technology for use in NASA missions involving in space main propulsion. Mach Effect Gravity Assist (MEGA) drive propulsion is based on peer-reviewed, technically credible physics. Mach effects are transient variations in the rest masses of objects that simultaneously experience accelerations and internal energy changes. They are predicted by standard physics where Mach's principle applies as discussed in peer- reviewed papers spanning 20 years and a recent book, Making Starships and Stargates: the Science of Interstellar Transport and Absurdly Benign Wormholes published in 2013 by Springer-Verlag.
- In Phase I we achieved the following:
- Implemented chirped pulses to reduce heating and provide a longer duration thrust capability.
- Designed and developed circuits to allow for 1f and 2f frequency impedance matched AC input to the device, to improve efficiency of the MEGA drive.
- Developed a better theoretical model for the device and conceptualized a probe for an interstellar mission to Proxima b. In Phase II, the next critical step in the development of these thrusters is to test new designs with higher frequency to increase the output thrust.
We have been using Steiner Martin's SM-111 PZT for our devices. We also expect to test new materials, for example APC-840 PZT, and PIN-PMN-PT, which we have procured but not had the opportunity to yet evaluate. It would also be advantageous to operate multiple devices to determine the thrust scales in arrays of 2 or more devices. We view the independent verification of the MEGA Drive effects by experts in the vacuum testing of micropropulsion as a crucial step in Phase II. We envision a collaboration with several entities (from academia and industry) to enable the testing of new devices. Mach effects have the revolutionary capability to produce thrust without the ejection of propellant, eliminating the need to carry propellant as required with most other propulsion systems. Ultimately, once proven in flight, these thrusters could be used for primary mission propulsion, opening up the solar system and making interstellar missions a reality. This aerospace concept is an exciting TRL 1 technology, ready to take the next step to providing propellantless propulsion, first in incremental NASA smallsat missions, but later enabling revolutionary new deep space exploratory capabilities beyond anything achievable by conventional chemical, nuclear or electric propulsion systems.
|James Woodward, Space Studies Institute, Inc.
“Phase II studies are given to the most successful Phase I fellows, whose ideas have the best possibility of changing the possible,” said Derleth. “Their two-year timeframe and larger budget allow them to really get going on the business of creating the future.”
NASA selected these projects through a peer-review process that evaluated innovativeness and technical viability. All projects are still in the early stages of development, most requiring 10 or more years of concept maturation and technology development before use on a NASA mission.
NIAC partners with forward-thinking scientists, engineers and citizen inventors from across the nation to help maintain America’s leadership in air and space. NIAC is funded by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, which is responsible for developing the cross-cutting, pioneering new technologies and capabilities needed by the agency to achieve its current and future missions.
Source:
NASA NIAC Program,
NIAC Phase I and Phase II Selections
