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NASA Awards Companies $65 Million To Develop Habitats For Deep Space (techcrunch.com)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via TechCrunch: NASA has committed $65 million to six companies over the course of two years for the purpose of developing and testing deep-space habitats that could be used for future missions to Mars. TechCrunch reports: "It's part of the organization's NEXTStep, an ongoing partnership program under NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems that funds private research into technology for space exploration. Last year's NEXTStep contracts were for a variety of things, but this year they're all on the same track: "deep space habitats where humans will live and work independently for months or years at a time, without cargo supply deliveries from Earth." The lucky companies are all taking slightly different approaches to the problem of deep space habitation." The six companies include Bigelow Aerospace, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Orbital ATK, Sierra Nevada Corporation's Space Systems and NanoRacks.
Just read the RFPs they have out. Write a proposal for any you are qualified to undertake.
Secure funding from NASA, how do I learn about the opportunity to secure funding, I am sure they advertise it somewhere, and have all sorts of guidelines, but it seems as if they send out invitations only, because it's only the same companies who ever get funding. I think the process to secure government money needs to be more accessible, and not hidden in bureaucracy only a select few can navigate to.
Just because it doesn't show up on your Facebook page doesn't mean it it is hidden in bureaucracy. If you have an idea for NASA, here you go:
https://prod.nais.nasa.gov/pub...
If you are just looking for money, here you go:
http://www.grants.gov/
The same companies seem to get chosen over and over is because they usually have some expertise in that particular area and can show a good reason why NASA should spend the money with them. Yeah, it helps to know the system but they bend over backward to make it transparent.
Use big mirrors and sunlight to heat space rock until it goes lava. Then blow gas inside the molten blob until it is big enough for your needs. Let it cool down, add holes for doors and windows.
Glass is brittle and tends to fracture. Don't expect junky mystery glass to hold up well long-term against micro-meteorite impacts - especially if it's made thin enough not to crack right away from thermal contraction during the cooling process. Cracks = leaks.
Even if it turned out to be practical to make something truly airtight via your technique, the result would still be super heavy compared to the high-tech alternatives favoured by the space industry: even homogeneous, high-quality synthetic glass has a poor strength-to-mass ratio as compared to structural metals (aluminium, steel, titanium) or synthetic fibres (kevlar, carbon fibre, etc.).
NASA wants maximum reliability (for both political and moral reasons) and minimum weight, because the cost of sending even lightweight manned spacecraft to Mars and back is already more than they can actually afford. What problem does melting space rocks solve for them?