One special NASA program aims to support ideas that could radically change the way we explore outer space. This year, among other things, it was proposed to green Mars and fly to Jupiter using laser beams.
How about a laser-powered spacecraft that can reach Jupiter in a year?
What about a man-made bacterium that will transform Mars' poisonous surface into farmland with a vacuum airship hovering in the skies?
It sounds like science fiction, but these are all projects that receive financial support from the American space organization NASA. The fact is that NASA is always looking for innovative ideas that in the future can improve, accelerate and, preferably, also reduce the cost of exploring the world space.
History at a glance
Each year, NASA pledges money for ideas that can make space exploration faster, better, or cheaper.
This year, 15 projects were selected, and you can read about some of the most interesting here.
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Good ideas are rewarded
The NIAC (NASA New Innovative Concepts) program has funds to spend on ideas that at first glance seem pretty fantastic - as long as they are technically and scientifically not entirely wild on closer inspection.
Anyone can apply to support a project that could revolutionize space travel and celestial research. If your project is selected, you can initially (phase 1) receive 125 thousand dollars, that is, 826 thousand kroons, to develop the idea for nine months.
If NASA still likes you, you can move on to phase 2 and can spend another two years and half a million dollars (3.3 million kronor) further on the concept. And it may happen that NASA decides to make it a reality.
In 2017, NASA selected 15 projects for Phase 1, and seven projects moved into Phase 2. All of them are American, although applications from other countries are accepted. Many ideas came from research centers and universities, but some also from private firms.
Mars needs greening
Adam Arkin of the University of California wants to create microorganisms that can make the soil of Mars less toxic and at the same time fertilize it, preparing it for planting. If we happen to emigrate to a new planet, the ability to grow food on it will be a great advantage.
Martha Lenio, who led a team of scientists who lived for eight months under a dome on the slope of a dormant Hawaiian volcano in similar Martian conditions
First of all, we are talking about how to neutralize perchlorates - chlorine-containing chemical compounds that are unfavorable for life.
If at the same time it will be possible to create ammonia used in fertilizers, we will take a big step from a barren red planet to a blooming and green one.
Mars soil explored
It sounds like a matter of a truly distant future, but you have to start somewhere if you want to be able to feed the population of Mars.
Mars expert Kjartan Kinch, a professor at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen, also doesn't think the idea sounds completely crazy:
“Of course, this is a very long-term pilot project. After all, it is obvious that many years will pass before people will settle on Mars who will prepare the earth for cultivation.
But we know quite a lot about what the soil on Mars is made of - our knowledge is enough to recreate realistic conditions in the laboratory."
That is, the soil of Mars can be modeled in a laboratory, and a Martian environment can also be created there, for example, with the required pressure and radiation.
The big question, however, is whether it will be possible to create microorganisms that can not only survive in a harsh environment, but also be able to make the soil fertile.
Airship without air
All NIAC project ideas are united by the fact that their implementation may take many years in the future.
Georgia Tech's John-Paul Clarke has an idea to build a vacuum blimp to explore Mars from the air. Here on Earth, we fill balloons and airships with helium, which makes them lighter than air, but if it were possible to create an airship with a void inside, it would be even lighter, which means it would have a greater carrying capacity.
This cannot be done here on the globe. A vacuum blimp simply wouldn't work, as the air pressure is too high and there are no building materials strong enough yet light enough: the airship will either collapse under pressure or be too heavy to fly.
But on Mars, the atmosphere is much more rarefied, and therefore the idea of a solid shell, from where you can pump out the air of Mars, is not bad and could make the work of scientists easier.
A vacuum airship could fly all over the place and explore the surface, and the flight altitude would be adjusted by pumping out more or less air using an electric pump powered by solar panels located above. Solar panels can also provide forward propulsion so that the airship moves not only with the wind, and in principle it could be used to transport goods and people on Mars.
To Jupiter with a laser
Some of the projects are about how to get to distant goals. For example, a suggestion by John Brophy of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He believes that humans will be able to reach Jupiter in a year, using the energy of a huge laser system located in Earth's orbit.
With the help of a laser, you can supply energy to the solar panels of a spacecraft, and there is enough sunlight right up to Jupiter. Electricity from the solar panels will power the ship's ion engine.
Ground-based lasers designed to impart inertia to a spacecraft
A laser facility with a diameter of 10 km and a capacity of 100 megawatts could provide enough power to deliver a small unmanned spacecraft to Pluto in 3.6 years, and a larger 80-ton spacecraft - perhaps with people on board - will arrive in Jupiter's orbit in a year. …
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Space debris killers
A little closer to Earth, we could use spaceships to collect space debris and send it for incineration. This is the Brane Craft concept from The Aerospace Corporation.
The firm has come up with a relatively light, flat, and flexible one-square-meter spacecraft that is propelled by rather small ion engines.
It will collect space debris and drag it down into the atmosphere, where it will burn.
Other NIAC ideas that have received support this year include suggestions for how best to capture exoplanet imagery, how to get a closer look at Venus, and more. The entire list can be seen on the NASA website.
Henrik Bendix
