NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts
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NASA
NASA Awards 2026 Innovative Technology Concepts
The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program has created 18 new awards to support visionary ideas to improve aerospace technologies in areas ranging from the exploration of the solar system to understanding the universe. The 18 NIAC Phase I awards total $3.2 million. Each award provides up to $175,000 for a nine-month initial investigation. The NIAC projects are about early-stage…
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NASA
NASA Fosters Innovative, Far-Out Tech for the Future of Aerospace
Through the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, NASA nurtures visionary yet credible concepts that could one day “change the possible” in aerospace, while engaging America’s innovators and entrepreneurs as partners in the journey. These concepts span various disciplines and aim to advance capabilities such as finding resources on distant planets, making space travel safer and more efficient, and even…
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NASA
Winners Named in NASA Space Tech Art Challenge
Space technology might look a bit different decades from now. The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program studies innovative, technically credible, advanced projects that could one day “change the possible” in aerospace. To help people understand what these innovations might look like, NIAC has turned to artists and graphic designers in a global contest to create posters to visualize future technologies under…
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NASA
NASA Tech Breathes Life Into Potentially Game-Changing Antenna Design
Some 30 years ago, a young engineer named Christopher Walker was home in the evening making chocolate pudding when he got what turned out to be a very serendipitous call from his mother. Taking the call, he shut off the stove and stretched plastic wrap over the pot to keep the pudding fresh. By the time he returned, the cooling…
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NASA
NASA Selects Experimental Space Technology Concepts for Initial Study
Imagine a future in space where pellet-beam propulsion systems speed up travel to other worlds, pipelines on the Moon transport oxygen between settlements, and Martian bricks grow on their own before being assembled into homes. Researchers will delve into these ideas and more using NASA grant funding. The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program fosters innovation by funding early-stage studies…
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NASA
NASA Selects Innovative, Early-Stage Tech Concepts for Continued Study
NASA encourages researchers to develop and study unexpected approaches for traveling through, understanding, and exploring space. To further these goals, the agency has selected seven studies for additional funding – totaling $5 million – from the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. The researchers previously received at least one NIAC award related to their proposals. “Creativity is key to future space exploration…
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