NASA has awarded 17 researchers $5.1 million in grants to study concepts for future aeronautics and space missions as part of the agency’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program.
Pam Melroy, deputy administrator at NASA, said in a statement Saturday the awards will explore innovative ideas and futuristic concepts that could help the U.S. accomplish new milestones.
A dozen projects each won $175,000 to conduct a nine-month Phase I study on researchers’ proposals such as a new crewed spacecraft design, a silently electric airplane, a solar-propelled spacecraft and an orbiting starshade.
Meanwhile, Phase II researchers secured $600,000 to continue research on Martian climbing robots, a nuclear power source for space, 3D-printed ocean-exploring micro-robots and other topics for two years.
The Phase I awardees are:
- Darmindra Arumugam, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- Steven Barrett, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Jason Benkoski, Johns Hopkins University
- Elena D’Onghia, University of Wisconsin–Madison
- Bonnie Dunbar, Texas A&M University
- Ivan Ermanoski, Arizona State University
- Philip Lubin, University of California
- John Mather, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
- Marcin Pilinski, University of Colorado
- Jonathan Sauder, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- Sara Seager, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Mahmooda Sultana, NASA Goddard
The Phase II award recipients are:
- Javid Bayandor, State University of New York
- Zac Manchester, Carnegie Mellon University
- E. Joseph Nemanick, The Aerospace Corporation
- Marco Pavone, Stanford University
- Ethan Schaler, NASA JPL