NIAC

Subsurface oceans on moons are some of the most promising places to look for life beyond Earth. NASA is now funding a project to develop a swarm of small swimming robots that would explore these alien oceans for signs of extraterrestrial life.

NASA is exploring the potential of building an enormous radio telescope on the far side of the Moon in a huge impact crater. The telescope’s reflector would be comprised of a 1-km diameter wire mesh, pulled into place by wall-climbing robots.

From smart spacesuits to solar surfing, 18 high-tech projects have been selected for the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program that is designed to push the envelope of space technology. The dozen and a half early studies are being funded to aid in the exploration of the Moon and beyond.

NASA has announced its 2016 selections for Phase 1 of its Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. As usual, the first round contains an impressive array of weird and wonderful technological concepts with the potential to revolutionize space exploration.

One possibility for replacing the Hubble space telescope is the Aragoscope from the University of Colorado Boulder, which uses a gigantic orbital disk instead of a mirror to produce images 1,000 times sharper than the Hubble's best efforts.