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.
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.
тАЬNASA has outlined an ambitious vision for the future of space exploration, weтАЩre returning the Moon to stay, advancing to Mars, and pushing to deepen our understanding of space,тАЭ said Greg Stover, director of the Advanced Research and Technology division within the Research and Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. тАЬAchieving 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.тАЭ
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.
тАЬEvery innovation, every leap in technology, starts with a seed of an idea,тАЭ said Phillip Williams, NIACтАЩs acting program executive. тАЬThe NIAC program allows NASA to germinate those seeds and determine if thereтАЩs something that could be grown to benefit future space missions and our nationтАЩs aerospace economy.тАЭ
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 MoonтАЩs 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 MoonтАЩs nearly two-week-long lunar nights.
Other concepts focus on exploring some of the solar systemтАЩs 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.
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.
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.
Researchers, known as NIAC Fellows, will investigate their concepts and identify potential challenges and opportunities for further development.
The 18 selections for 2026 NIAC Phase 1 grants are:
- Saptarshi┬аBandyopadhyay, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California: Dimming the Sun Using Controllable Dust Cloud to Reduce Solar Insolation (DimSun) ┬а
- David Bugby, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Combinatory Architecture offering Neomobility, on-Venus Adaptability, and Survivability (CANVAS)
- A.C. Charania, Zeno Power Systems, Inc., Washington:
Extended Astronaut Radioisotope-EVA in Nighttime and Deep-space Icy Landscapes (EARENDIL)
- Anish┬аDamodaran, University of Central Florida, Orlando: PS21: Transforming Submillimeter Space Interferometry with Photonic Technologies
- Artur┬аDavoyan, University of California, Los Angeles: Coilable Stacked Solar Sails for Very High delta-V Missions
- Daniel┬аDrew, University of Hawaii, Honolulu: Solid-state Propulsion for Autonomous Reconnaissance of Karst (SPARK)
- Gilly Elor, Stone Aerospace, Inc., Del Valle, Texas: Power-over-Fiber to Enable a Lunar Underground eXplorer (LUX)
- Zhaoyan┬аLiu, NASA Ames Research Center, CaliforniaтАЩs Silicon Valley: Quantum Wind Lidar Applications for Planetary and Earth Science Missions
- Jeff┬аNosanov, Orbital Velocity, LLC, Decatur, Georgia: OBLIVIAN: Observing Black hole LIght Via Intensity cOrrelatioN (OBLIVIAN)
- Keunhan┬аPark, University of Utah, Salt Lake City: Plasmon-Enhanced Radioisotope Thermophotovoltaic (PRTPV) Power Generation for Interstellar Missions
- Austin┬аPhoenix, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia: Efficient variable Conductivity Lunar Insulator for Passive Surveyor Environmental Control (ECLIPSE)
- Marco┬аQuadrelli, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory: PRAXIS: Planetary Rings Autonomous EXploration with In-situ Sampling (PRAXIS)
- Michael┬аRubenstein, Northwestern University, Chicago: Actively Steerable Femtosat Constellations for In-situ Exploration of SaturnтАЩs Rings, Atmosphere, and Magnetosphere
- Benjamin┬аSchafer, Rarefied Technologies Inc., Albuquerque, New Mexico: : Photophoretic Tracers for Near-Space Remote Sensing at 30-100 km Altitudes
- David┬аSmith, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina: Robotically Assembled Electromagnetic Metamaterials for Long-Range Space Situational Awareness
- Pablo┬аSobron, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute, Mountain View, California: Interworld Slingshot Resource Surveys
- Paul┬аStankus, Brookhaven Science Associates, Upton, New York: Mapping Alien Continents: Achieving Optical VLBI for Exoplanet Imaging
- Paul┬аStankus, Brookhaven Science Associates, Upton, New York: Precision Astrometry Using Optically Independent Spacecraft for Gravitational Wave Detection
To learn more about NASAтАЩs NIAC program, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/about-niac
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Rob Margetta
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0918
robert.j.margetta@nasa.gov┬а
