[SpaceProgram] NIAC Looking for New Proposals

[Alex]

Seems another potential grant we could apply for:

QUOTE
the program returned in 2011 with the goal of funding “early studies of
visionary, long term concepts – aerospace architectures, systems, or
missions (not focused technologies).” The 2011 effort resulted in
funding for 30 advanced technology proposals, each of them receiving
$100,000 for one year of study.

Sent to you by Alex via Google Reader: NIAC Looking for New Proposals
via Centauri Dreams by Paul Gilster on 1/18/12



NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program has issued a second call
for proposals, following the selection of its first round of Phase I
concepts in 2011. NIAC (formerly the NASA Institute for Advanced
Concepts) ran from 1998 to 2007 in the capable hands of Robert
Cassanova, who is now external council chair for the new organization.
After a four year interregnum, the program returned in 2011 with the
goal of funding “early studies of visionary, long term concepts –
aerospace architectures, systems, or missions (not focused
technologies).” The 2011 effort resulted in funding for 30 advanced
technology proposals, each of them receiving $100,000 for one year of
study.

The new call for proposals continues the NIAC theme of looking for
ideas that are both innovative and visionary, while remaining at an
early stage of development, considered as being ten years or more from
actual use on a mission. Approximately fifteen proposals are likely to
win funding in the 2012 selection, with short proposals of no more than
two pages in length accepted until February 9. Authors of the concepts
that make the first cut will then be notified to submit a full proposal
due on April 16. According to the NASA news release, the solicitation
is “open to all U.S. citizens and researchers working in the United
States, including NASA civil servants.”

I remember paging through reports and presentations from the first NIAC
when working on my Centauri Dreams book — those reports are still
available online and make for a compelling set of ideas, from
antimatter collection strategies to micro-scale laser sails for deep
space exploration. The new NIAC’s Phase I studies are equally
provocative, and you might want to look through NIAC head Jay Falker’s
presentation at the 2011 meeting to see not only an overview of the
program but a set of posters explaining each of the Phase I studies
chosen.

James Gilland (Ohio Aerospace Institute), for example, looks at ambient
plasma wave propulsion, noting that an environment of magnetic fields
and plasmas is associated not only with many planets but the Sun
itself. Because plasmas with magnetic fields can support a variety of
waves that can transmit energy and/or pressure, Gilland sees an opening
for propulsion. Quoting the precis:

This concept simply uses an on‐board power supply and antenna on a
vehicle that operates in the existing plasma. The spacecraft beams
plasma waves in one direction with the antenna, to generate momentum
that could propel the vehicle in the other direction, without using any
propellant on the space ship. Such a system could maneuver in the
plasma environment for as long as its power supply lasts, without
refueling. One particular wave to consider is the Alfven wave, which
propagates in magnetized plasmas and has been observed occurring
naturally in space.



Steven Howe (Universities Space Research Association), who devised the
ingenious ‘antimatter sail’ concept that was analyzed in Phase I and II
studies for the first NIAC, considers production methods for Pu-238,
thus keeping Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) in the game
at a time when Pu-238 supplies are scarce. John Slough (MSNW LLC) looks
at ‘a small scale, low cost path to fusion-based propulsion’ by using
propellant to compress and heat a magnetized plasma to fusion
conditions. Grover Swartzlander (Rochester Institute of Technology)
explores so-called ‘optical lift’ and its potential to enhance solar
sail missions.

Image: John Slough’s Phase I study, a ‘small scale, low cost path’ to
fusion‐based propulsion. It is accomplished by employing the propellant
to compress and heat a magnetized plasma to fusion conditions, and
thereby channel the fusion energy released into heating only the
propellant. Passage of the hot propellant through a magnetic nozzle
rapidly converts this thermal energy into both directed (propulsive)
energy and electrical energy. Credit: John Slough/NIAC.

I won’t go through all of these Phase I ideas here, as they’re
available in Falker’s excellent presentation, and you can also see some
of them discussed in Enabling the future: NASA call for exploration
revolution via NIAC concepts, an article on the NASASpaceflight.com
site. NASA’s 2012 solicitation page for NIAC is here. Ahead for NIAC is
the 2012 Spring Symposium, planned for March 27-29 at the Westin Hotel
in Pasadena, CA, where current NIAC fellows will give presentations
about their Phase I research. Public attendance at the meeting is
encouraged.



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