NIAC
Study Shows How Cells Could Help Artemis Astronauts Exercise
New research aims to ensure astronauts' health by mimicking the human body's response to exercise.
A Novel Propulsion System Would Hurl Hypervelocity Pellets at a Spacecraft to Speed it up
A new proposal for a pellet-beam spacecraft could enable interstellar missions and a Solar Gravitational Lens in a matter of…
A new way to Peer Into the Permanently Shadowed Craters on the Moon, Searching for Deposits of Water ice
Not all flashlights are created equal. Some are stronger, consume more power, or have features such as blinking or strobes.…
A Mission to Reach the Solar Gravitational Lens in 30 Years
NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts is famous for supporting outlandish ideas in the astronomy and space exploration fields. Since being…
A Huge Rotating Kilometer-Scale Space Station Could be Launched From a Single Rocket
Artificial gravity remains the stuff of science fiction. But dealing with no gravity causes significant problems in many astronauts, ranging…
The Best way to Leave the Solar System Might be to fly Uncomfortably Close to the Sun
We’ve reported before on the conceptual mission known as the Interstellar Probe. This ambitious mission would visit the interstellar medium…
The new NIAC Awards are out! New Spacesuits, Breathing Martian air, Advanced Telescopes, and More
The NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) has been a significant funder of pie in the sky research for a…
Extrasolar Object Interceptor Would be Able to Chase Down the Next Oumuamua or Borisov and Actually Return a Sample
What if we had the ability to chase down interstellar objects passing through our Solar System, like Oumuamua or Comet…
Exploring the Moon’s Shadowed Regions Using Beamed Energy
NASA is exploring new concepts for its long-awaited return to the Moon, one of which promises to "beam" power wherever…
NASA Invests in a Plan to Build Landing Pads and Other Structures on the Moon out of Regolith
Materials are a crucial yet underappreciated component of any space exploration program. Without novel materials and ways to make them,…