Pushing The Envelope

FWMiller sent us this gem: "Was cruising around NASA's pages and found this list of studies that have been funded by the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC). Interested in what might be coming down the pipe in the way of new propulsion and vehicle concepts? This page lists links to a few of 'em." I thought the one titled 'A Realistic Interstellar Explorer' was cool.

Comments

Re:Really? What would you have said in 1903?

[otomo_1001]

Honestly if some crackpots called Orville and Wilbur came up to you in 1903 and said they were inventing a flying machine and were going to test it out at Kitty Hawk, you would have shrugged them off as either insane, stupid, or just mad.

But look at what happened, the few (Orville and Wilbur) proved the many WRONG. And they got to have a cool ride on a very unsafe aircraft. :)

Re:Intelligent Satellite Teams for Space Systems

[Ig0r]

Smaller systems would probably have more survivability just as small insects are much more difficult to injure than larger animals. The smaller sizes of componants would mean that relative forces would be much less than on their larger counterparts.

--

Very cool

[ericdano]

Very cool stuff. I really liked a link I found off the Antimater project. this site deals with the things we need to overcome before we can "warp" to a planet.
--

More than meets the eye

[DavidBrown]

Here's one proposal:

"Self-Transforming Robotic Planetary Explorers"

Autobots or Decepticons?

The more immediate future keeps changing

[tesserae]

If you had looked at similar projects from twenty years ago, they'd have been quite different. Scientific advance is happening so fast in many areas that the "long range" plans must be continually revised, as we become more aware of what the possibilities are...

Right now Mars missions are difficult enough that they often go wrong -- but we're also doing them for a tiny fraction of what we were spending twenty years ago. We are basically keeping reliability constant (if not actually reducing it) and accepting the cost advantage.

Someday it will be only as difficult to mount an interstellar mission as it is now to send one to Mars; we'll only know that when the fact becomes apparent because of the ongoing feasibility studies.

---

The problem is different

[jeroenb]

I always thought the problems with figuring out how to do interstellar travel were mostly in theory - like how do we reach high velocities without using up impossible amounts of fuel or how do we steer these ships, but in fact, most of these papers have all that figured out but they're just waiting until we have the technology to manufacture stuff like the Solar Sail. That's actually pretty cool, we're closer than I thought :)

Re:The problem is different

[Bluesee]

Here's what my aerospace comrades tell me about the early days of NASA:

When NASA was proposing to go to the moon and actually planning it, they instituted the second and perhaps one of the best examples of the triumph of Systems Engineering as a development tool. One of the interesting features of it was that inventions had to be put on the schedule and were critical to the timely success of the mission.

So they are old hands at planning for things like the sail.

Oh, the first instance of Systems Engineering? Nuclear-tipped ICBMs. It was invented for just that purpose.

Re:well...

[digitalrust]

Don't think this isn't important. This planet will be uninhabitable someday, whether it's billions of years from now (supernova) or next week (insert favorite doomsday scenario). Don't forget that we might have decades or hundreds of years warning from something like a giant asteroid/comet. Or not. Better to start looking elsewhere as soon as possible for a new home. The only way we won't go out there eventually is if we're wiped out before we're able to go.

Wonderfull! But what if...

[Tin Weasil]

Microsoft software is used to run these "future" spacecraft? I can see it now:

1. 
   2001: A Space OS
   
   "Houston... we have a problem..."
   
   "UNSS Gagarin, this is Houston. What is the nature of the problem?"
   
   "Well... I know we are supposed to be on a mission to Proxima Centauri, but..."
   
   "But what?"
   
   "Well, our HalNT 9000 computer bluescreened just between the orbits of Neptune and Pluto."
   
   "So... just reboot the damn thing and get back on the mission!"
   
   "It's not that simple Houston. Our friend Astronaut Sam decided to fix it by loading Linux on the computer."
   
   "WHAT?"
   
   "Yeah. Everything is working fine now, but we're going to need someone down their to get us a device driver for the ship's dueterium fuel tanks... and the drive motors... and if you could get us drivers for the life support systems we would really appreciate it. The sooner the better on those life support systems."
   
   "Oh... My... God..."
   
   "Exactly. Dave forgot to check the Hardware Compatibility List before loading it up... I guess the ship's hardware is all proprietary. Needless to say, we have trapped Dave in the airlock. Want us to let him breathe vacuum?"
   
   "Only if someone else has the root password."
   
   "Oooo! Good point. Ummm, by the way, is the new 2.4 kernel out? We could sure use some help with these USB peripherals also."
   
   "Okay Major Tom... you and your boys sit tight. We'll get our team down here working on a solution..."
   
   

Re:Really?

[delong]

::yawn:: first of all, Ive been posting a link to this site everytime anything space related shows up on Slashdot. Thanks for noticing. :/

As to this being science fiction, well it can't rightly be fiction if it is under study RIGHT NOW, now can it? Besides, none of the projects listed are beyond our current understanding of physics and engineering. They arent on the lunatic fringe, they are only on the fringe of what what lies within the range of easy science and established expectations. The goals of the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (gasp! did you fail to realize the meaning of that? ADVANCED CONCEPTS, repeat 10 times times loud) are stated thus .

To quote:

While the NIAC seeks concepts which stretch the imagination, these concepts should be based on sound scientific principles. Now is your time to dream and stretch your imagination. The "Dreams" supported through the NIAC funding can be the framework for future NASA missions and programs. Advanced concept proposals should be aimed well beyond the evolution technical challenges that occupy current programs and set new, revolutionary directions in aeronautics and space. We are seeking advanced concepts, specifically systems and architectures, that are indeed "Grand" and revolutionary, and which will expand our vision of future possibilities.

Sheesh.

Derek

So is this "plasmaware?"

[localroger]

Somehow "vaporware" doesn't seem quite thin enough to describe how far-out some of these ideas are. I mean, they can't even get more than 2 out of 4 Mars probes to go, or even keep the website up, are we really supposed to take it seriously when they talk about going to Proxima Centauri?

Wow. Science fiction writers would be happy.

[sachachua]

This stuff is pretty wild - just took a look at the magsail, and suddenly I think of windsurfing..

Intelligent Satellite Teams for Space Systems

[Kreeblah]

Now this looks interesting. Nanotechnology for satellites. The only problem is space dust. It doesn't affect larger satellites, because they're, well, larger. Wouldn't nano-satellites encountering space dust be equivalent to regular satellites encountering asteroids? They'd be more susceptible to any forces acting upon them, because they have less mass (and are easier to move). If people can lose satellites WITHOUT having to worry about them being constantly knocked off course, wouldn't it be a good idea to stay away from this sort of thing? Just a thought.

The real link

[quickquack]

Here's the actual link to the NASA site. http://peaches.niac.usra.edu/studies/
------------

Re:well...

[KevinMS]

reminds me of that sci-fi story in which an expedition of cryo-suspended people wake up at their destination and find people already there because along the way they were passed by faster, more advanced ships.

Here's to the dreamers!

[Alien54]

Well, at least they have something in case they ever get a real budget. There are so many toys here.

Topics include

Advanced Power - Advanced Propulsion - Aeronautics Platforms - Asteroid Detection - Astronomy - Biology - Communication - Earth Science Platforms - In-Situ Utilization - Planetary Colonization - Robotics - Satellite Teams - Software

I like this specific abstract in the software section:

"Architectures and Algorithms for Self-Healing Autonomous Spacecraft"

Imagine spacecraft whose missions last three times the human lifespan. Imagine spacecraft with the ability to decide where to explore, how to plan a trajectory, and which data to record.

These autonomous spacecraft will require computational systems whose fault tolerance and performance are orders of magnitude better than presently possible.

This challenge has been recognized by NASA's Dan Goldin as calling for revolutionary computational systems that depart radically from contemporary designs.

We propose to develop a family of such systems, with emphasis on algorithms whereby the architecture heals itself. Highly autonomous spacecraft will require computational systems that tolerate a number of faults in proportion to the total number of components, hardware and software.

This is orders of magnitude better than presently possible. To enable the combination of fault tolerance and performance, we envision a self-healing architecture. Self-healing architectures would naturally support fault tolerance, and are therefore amenable to scalable constructions. Self-healing architectures could be realized using a variety of technologies.

The benefits of self-healing architectures extend to military and commercial applications. However, a self-healing architecture such as we propose has never been built, nor is it on the evolutionary horizon of the immediate decade. Our effort will identify properties for self-healing architectures that deliver at least 1015 operations per second per kilogram, and that tolerate a number of faults proportional to the number of components.

For Phase I we propose to deliver a graphical, executable model of a highly fault tolerant, self-healing architecture prototype. The fidelity of this Phase I model will be sufficiently rich to demonstrate tolerance to a number of faults in proportion to the number of components. For Phase I we foresee two major technical challenges:

i) generalization and merging of results from configuration for performance with results for configuration for fault tolerance, and
ii) specification of a baseline programming model for a self-healing architecture.

The next step would be to design and construct a self-healing architecture and attendant software. Looking to Phase II and beyond, realizing such an architecture will of necessity be multi-disciplinary, and will draw on the expertise of specialists in algorithms, testing, software engineering, circuits, power, packaging, radiation hardening, thermal and mechanical design, control, sensors, and mission planning.

Wow, what a project!