Skip to main content

Beyond science fiction: A look at the future of NASA technology

Future of NASA technology

There are critics out there complaining about NASA’s inability to innovate simply due to the grounding of explorations to the moon. But a crop of 28 funded projects by NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts Program will make anyone think twice about the organization’s aptitude for forward-thinking ideas.

Now that the most difficult part of Curiosity’s successful trip to Mars has come to pass, and placed NASA back on the radar of countless space enthusiasts throughout the world, NASA has an untold number of projects, not related to Curiosity, up its sleeve. And if its latest funded projects are any indication, some of these concepts appear to have been taken right out of a science fiction movie.

Related Videos

The award recipients were separated by two categories, Phase 1 and Phase 2.

PHASE 1

Phase 1 fellows are those whose concept proposals won NASA’s $100,000 grant for one year of further the research to discover the proposals’ feasibility. Among the Phase 1 proposals, the following caught our eye.

Venus Landsailing Rover

Proposed by NASA’s Glenn Research Center (GRC), is a practical ways to landsail above or through the dense atmosphere of Venus, the second rock from the sun.

HOMES – Holographic Optical Method Exoplanet Spectroscopy

This proposal suggests a technology that will enable scientists to study planets outside of our solar system using holographic projections or representations of said planets.

Exploration of Under-Ice Regions with Ocean Profiling Agents (EUROPA)

Researchers at Virgina Polytechnic Institute and Virginia State University are researching feasible ways to explore what’s beneath the icy surface of Jupiter’s sixth closest moon. What the researchers suggest building is a submarine destined for Europa.

Water Walls: Highly Reliable and Massively Redundant Life Support Architecture

water walls in space

Intended for long-duration space missions, waste, fecal matter and urine need an efficient way of being recycled as the consequences of simply disposing of the grey matter onto an extraterrestrial planet is unknown. NASA’s Ames Research Center (ARC) has proposed the construction of a habitat where waste water is treated within its walls. Osmosis would filter out usable water, while the waste would be re-purposed as a radiation shield.

PHASE 2

Phase 2 proposals are ideas from Phase 1 of last year that have shown promise and will be rewarded $500,000 for further development and analysis – a potential precursor to the development of a prototype. Here are some Phase 2 ideas that we were intrigued by.

The Fusion Driven Rocket: Nuclear Propulsion through Direct Conversion of Fusion Energy

fusion rocket nasa

MSNW scientists have been researching and prototyping is a rocket propulsion system that would be propelled by fusion energy. What are the benefits of this technology? According to the research, existing technology can send a mission to Mars in approximately 210 days. A fusion driven rocket, however, would theoretically enable NASA to reach Mars in a blazing-fast 30 days.

Printable Spacecraft: Flexible Electronic Platforms for NASA Missions

The future of manufacturing could be in 3D printing. Today, our technological capabilities today enable us to print flexible substrates from silicon and glass to metal and biological inks. Eventually 3D printing technology could be scaled up to print an entire spacecraft.

Variable Vector Countermeasure Suit (V2Suit) for Space Habitation and Exploration

 v2suit

As you surely already know, objects in space are subject to weightlessness. In this odd environment, astronauts can often become disoriented when attempting to position themselves within the confines of a spacecraft. Using gyroscopes and accelerometers to provide resistance in space, the V2Suit will mimic the sensation of gravity for its wearers.

The development of the V2Suit is evidence that NASA has human-manned, deep-space exploration missions in mind. (Currently, they only use robots.)

“These selections represent the best and most creative new ideas for future technologies that have the potential to radically improve how NASA missions explore new frontiers,” said Michael Gazarik, director of NASA’s Space Technology Program in a statement.

The listed projects are still in early development. And if any reach the prototyping stage, it won’t be for another 10 or more years that we would see their use in an actual mission. But with Obama’s plans to send a human mission to Mars by 2030, we wouldn’t be surprised if the V2Suit, Printable Spacecraft, and other sci-fi-like technologies are among those that end up aiding the human exploration of the Great Unknown.

Editors' Recommendations

The future of manufacturing: A look ahead to the next era of making things
BMW factory worker using robotic arm

The manufacturing industry is in an almost constant state of evolution. The way we make things -- from cars to shoes to dental floss -- has changed dramatically over the past 100 years, and the next 100 will surely be just as dramatic. So what big changes are on the horizon? What does the near future of manufacturing look like? To get a hint, we spoke with a Willem Sundblad, founder and CEO of Oden Technologies and all-around manufacturing expert. Here are three big things that he says we can expect to see in manufacturing in the coming years.
Rebuilding for resiliency
Over the past year, the manufacturing sector was rocked by a series of unexpected disruptions. The first (and most profound) was the coronavirus pandemic, which not only caused widespread factory shutdowns, but also led to a massive shift in people's consumption patterns. This ultimately created shortages for a broad range of goods -- everything from condoms to aluminum cans to computer chips. And that was just the beginning.

"COVID was one thing," says Sundblad, "but we've had other disruptions as well. The ripple effects of the Suez Canal blockage are still happening, for example. Then there were the winter storms in Texas earlier this year, which knocked out the whole petrochemical feedstock industry, which goes into everything that's made out of plastic, which is a lot of stuff."

Read more
Part Terminator, part Tremors: This robotic worm can swim through sand
Robot sand worm hawkes uc santa barbara

“That's how they git you. They're under the goddamned ground!” So says Val McKee, the hired hand played by Kevin Bacon in 1990’s classic comedy creature feature, Tremors. McKee is referring to the Graboids, an invertebrate species of monstrous giant worms which travel underground, pushing aside dirt while they dig.

The folks at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the Georgia Institute of Technology have been working on a robot that’s not a million miles from the Graboids. While it’s currently a lot smaller, and far less prone to munching on unsuspecting cattle and humans, it’s nonetheless a tunneling, snake-inspired creation that’s able to burrow through soil or soft sand. And maybe, its creators claim, even one day the surface regolith found on other planets. Is this the future of space rovers yet to come?

Read more
The future of sustainability: A look at the next evolution of environmental tech
web tool estimates renewable potential wind turbines

The world of clean energy is rapidly evolving. Solar power installations in the U.S. increased by 43 percent in 2020, and the price of solar decreased by nearly 90 percent between 2010 and 2020. Similarly, wind turbine capacity increased by a record 14.2 gigawatts last year alone. On top of that, electric vehicle sales have been steadily increasing, and it’s expected that by 2025, 10 percent of all vehicles sold will be electric vehicles. By all accounts, the green tech revolution is well underway.

But while these are certainly promising developments, they're hardly enough to slow down climate change. In order to make a significant dent in the problem, we'll need to scale up and improve these technologies. So what does the future of green energy look like? We spoke with environmental researcher, author, lecturer, and entrepreneur Johnathan Koomey to get some insights.
Solar
According to Koomey, solar costs will almost certainly continue to decrease in the coming years — but perhaps in different ways than we might expect.

Read more