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<\/a><\/figure>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.<\/p>\n
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 concept development and are not considered official NASA missions.<\/p>\n
\u201cNASA has outlined an ambitious vision for the future of space exploration, we\u2019re returning the Moon to stay, advancing to Mars, and pushing to deepen our understanding of space,\u201d said Greg Stover, director of the Advanced Research and Technology division within the Research and Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. \u201cAchieving that will require more than incremental technological advancement. It means we need great leaps. These awards are the kinds of innovation the world needs NASA to help foster.\u201d<\/p>\n
As an innovation incubator, NIAC funds early development of potential breakthrough technologies. Concepts for award consideration must have both transformative potential and possible feasibility for eventual implementation.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery innovation, every leap in technology, starts with a seed of an idea,\u201d said Phillip Williams, NIAC\u2019s acting program executive. \u201cThe NIAC program allows NASA to germinate those seeds and determine if there\u2019s something that could be grown to benefit future space missions and our nation\u2019s aerospace economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
As NASA and its partners push for sustained lunar presence, some of the 2026 awardees focused on ways to help explore the Moon and build infrastructure there. These include a system to support hovering robots to explore lava tubes under the Moon\u2019s surface, a method to manage temperatures for small mobile exploration robots, and a way to incorporate radioisotopic heat sources into suits to help keep astronauts warm when operating in the Moon\u2019s nearly two-week-long lunar nights.<\/p>\n
Other concepts focus on exploring some of the solar system\u2019s most remarkable features. Venus, with its hot atmosphere, presents an imposing challenge for research vehicles, so one NIAC awardee explores methods for hardening instruments for longer missions.<\/p>\n
Two other concepts could help study planetary rings. One would use a swarm of 10,000 tiny satellites to map and analyze the rings of Saturn, while another would create a system for collecting samples from rings such as those circling Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.<\/p>\n
Some NIAC awardees will look far beyond the solar system, exploring ways to power interstellar spacecraft, map out continents on exoplanets, observe the photon rings around black holes, and detect subtle gravitational waves to explain how galaxies formed. Others will work to answer questions directly related to life on Earth, like the potential use of spaceborne dust to reduce solar radiation, and awareness about the debris orbiting Earth.<\/p>\n
Researchers, known as NIAC Fellows, will investigate their concepts and identify potential challenges and opportunities for further development.<\/p>\n
The 18 selections<\/a> for 2026 NIAC Phase 1 grants are:<\/p>\n To learn more about NASA\u2019s NIAC program, visit:<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/about-niac<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n -end-<\/p>\n Rob Margetta\n
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Extended Astronaut Radioisotope-EVA in Nighttime and Deep-space Icy Landscapes (EARENDIL)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
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robert.j.margetta@nasa.gov<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\nShare<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n