Hey folks, At our last meeting we discussed the possibility of applying for a NASA innovation grant (NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts or NIAC). There are two steps to the application process; the first is due one week from tomorrow, but is short and high-level enough that we could put together a plausible submission without needing to wait for next year.
But we need the right project. *We need help brainstorming something that would be a good fit for NASA's criteria, and that we could take on as a group without undermining our core mission (something that supports the ultimate goal of building an orbital launch vehicle)*. This grant would fund preliminary research and a feasibility study on the technology, simulations, first-order design estimates, etc. It doesn't have to be - shouldn't be - something we've already built. Instead, we are looking for something that would extend our current capabilities and make a substantial contribution to the state of the art in space tech. We really need your ideas. See below for a bit more context and food for thought. ----MORE INFO---- *A quick outline of the purpose:* "The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program nurtures visionary ideas that could transform future NASA missions with the creation of breakthroughs — radically better or entirely new aerospace concepts — while engaging America's innovators and entrepreneurs as partners in the journey. The program seeks innovations from diverse and non-traditional sources and NIAC projects study innovative, technically credible, advanced concepts that could one day “change the possible” in aerospace." *For the first phase of the application we need to demonstrate three criteria:* - Exciting and unexplored – compelling potential benefit; if successful will enable wholly new missions or a great leap in capabilities related to NASA and/or aerospace goals. sufficiently new or different to require initial definition or feasibility analysis; mission concept feasibility or properties are not already known, nor readily determined - Credible – proposed technologies and capabilities are technically sound - Mission context – Includes analysis in at least one specific mission context demonstrating the potential for substantial benefits relative to the state of the art enabling an entirely new and highly appealing mission capability *Background on successful proposals:* Many of the funded proposals could be classified as either figurative or literal "moonshot" proposals - low probability of success but high payoff and very bold. Successful mission areas seem to be: propulsion, planetary science techniques, astronomy and telescopes, ISRU, life support and habitation for manned exploration, different mission architecture proposals like probes and rovers, and sensors. Real space exploration stuff. The proposals most similar to PSAS' core mission, IMO, are related to launch systems and propulsion. Possibly also sensors or communication; there's not much avionics or software-based that's been funded, but that might be a chance to break new ground. NanoTHOR is a tether-based CubeSat deployment system: http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2012_phase_I_fellows_hoyt.html#.VgyuxflVhBc This is a propulsion system proposal for CubeSat solar system exploration missions: http://www.nasa.gov/content/dual-mode-propulsion-system-enabling-cubesat-exploration-of-the-solar-system/#.Vgy42vlVhBc See here for the complete list: http://www.nasa.gov/content/funded-studies/#.U1_WsSTzAZD
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