Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science

Five promising ideas selected for more detailed study by the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) with its 2005 Phase II awards.

Five proposals were selected for the 2005 Phase II studies, with the performance period from Sept. 1, 2005 to Aug. 31, 2007:

- Redesigning Living Organisms for Mars
- New Worlds Imager
- Microbots for Large-Scale Planetary Surface and Subsurface Exploration
- Investigation of the Feasibility of Laser Trapped Mirrors
- A Deep Field Infrared Observatory near the Lunar Pole

source: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0510/15advanced/

I like this list. Although I'm not confident in the ability of a "micro" bot to do anything "large-scale", the other ideas seem to have some hint of reason. Particularly the telescopes. It would be great if there was a telescope that could image large animals, or detect movement, on terrestrial planets 1000 lightyears away. Also, maybe a dedicated telescope for resolving high-redshift galaxies at the edge of the visible universe, and determining if they are globules of hydrogen, or fully formed disks. And the laser-trapped mirrors idea sounds interesting for supporting extremely large gossamer mirrors with standing waves of radiation. Of course I'm expecting too much.

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread