New space projects will be carried out after receiving new funding for NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program, that will include technology that allows astronauts to hibernate during extended spaceflight and using laser propulsion systems to reach star systems light years away.

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NASA officials have selected eight proposed mission that has the potential to transform future space missions that can also introduce new capabilities and provide significant improvement for current approaches in developing, building and operating aerospace systems. This second phase of the grant has been awarded to each project, estimated to be worth US $500,000 that would carried out in the next two years.

One of these proposals involve an induced, advanced state of hypothermia for astronauts, especially during long spaceflights, where the core body temperature will be dropped to almost 10 degrees, then reducing the body's metabolism rate for the journey to Mars, that can take at least nine months. This machine will also maintain and protect the humans sleeping inside, by feeding them via IV, according to John Bradford and his team from Spaceworks Engineering.

Another exiting project that also received the Phase II grant is physicist Philip Lubin of the University of California and his team, proposing a propulsion system that can send tiny NASA probes to distant interstellar missions in other galaxies light years away. NASA officials and scientists believe that this type of technology may take decades to complete, however this can provide the opportunity to reach distant star systems in just 20 years. 

Expandable habitats and protective spacecraft shells are also part of this new funding, where another project aims to design a safer barrier for any spacecraft to land on Mars since the dusty planet's thin atmosphere can affect its velocity. Although traditional methods can create dangerous friction to the spacecraft during re-entry of the atmosphere but with the help of heavy heat shields, these can prevent further damage to spacecraft.

Now, a new proposed project by David Kirtley of the MSNW LLC that is based in Washington that develops space propulsion technologies, involves a new system that can prevent this damage from Martian atmospheric friction by reducing the weight of the spacecraft. This is achieved by encasing the spacecraft inside a magnetoshell made from plasma, using a new aerobraking technique that reduces the weight of the spacecraft, while protecting space explorers inside from harmful radiation.

According to NIAC program executive Jason Derleth, Phase II decisions have been challenging however, due to many successful Phase I studies, we decided to move their cutting edge technologies to the next level.

TagsNASA NIAC, NIAC, NASA mars mission, Mars