These 5 futuristic tech ideas could help us explore distant worlds

Innovation From the Moon to Pluto, these innovations could solve huge mysteries about our universe. by Jennifer Walter Updated: Feb. 20, 2024 Originally Published: Jan. 23, 2023 NASA

Before humans can land on Mars or probe distant, icy worlds in our Solar System, we’ll need new technologies to get us there.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute

Quinn Morley/NASA Every year, the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program awards grant money to scientists and engineers to explore new technology concepts that could boost future space missions.

At this point, the concepts are just that — concepts. These new technologies aren’t a reality yet. But with financial support from the competition, teams hope to actually build and test them. Quinn Morley/NASA

Shutterstock Here are 5 futuristic concepts that NASA is funding:

5. Pipelines on the Moon If humans set up base on the lunar surface in the near future, they’re going to need a steady supply of oxygen — which could potentially be extracted from the soil. NASA

One team wants to build a pipeline to connect an extraction center or oxygen storage facility to the astronauts living and working on base.

al fauzan / 500px/500Px Plus/Getty Images Lunar regolith contains almost 45 percent oxygen.

4. Icy world probe In order to peek beneath the surface of icy worlds like Europa, Enceladus, Ceres, and Pluto, we’ll need probes that can dig deep under the ice shells of those worlds. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute

One team proposes a heated probe, fueled by nuclear power, that can bore into icy surfaces. It would have to have enough power to melt a hole through miles and miles of ice — Ceres’ external ice layer, for example, is estimated to be more than 24 miles deep.

3. Beam me up, Scotty Traveling between planets — or even deep into the Solar System — takes a long time. But one team wants to design a particle beam that can push vehicles into hyperdrive. Shutterstock

Called a pellet beam, this device would shoot microscopic particles at payloads to push them further into space.

2. Living bricks Getting building materials to the Moon and Mars will be incredibly costly, which is why one team wants to grow them instead , using synthetic lichen. Shutterstock

Astronauts could use freshly-grown organisms as a “glue” to form bricks out of Mars regolith. Voila — all made on the Red Planet.

Shutterstock Lichen could proliferate with melted Martian ice, sunlight, minerals, and other compounds.

1. Flying on Titan For future missions to Saturn’s moon, Titan, one team envisions a seaplane-like vehicle that can soar through the atmosphere and sail on lakes and rivers. Quinn Morley/NASA

NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute Titan is the only world besides Earth known to have liquid on its surface. The vehicle, called TitanAir, could collect information about the moon’s strange chemistry from air and sea.

These 5 futuristic tech ideas could help us explore distant worlds

Before humans can land on Mars or probe distant, icy worlds in our Solar System, we’ll need new technologies to get us there.

One team wants to build a pipeline to connect an extraction center or oxygen storage facility to the astronauts living and working on base.

Called a pellet beam, this device would shoot microscopic particles at payloads to push them further into space.

Astronauts could use freshly-grown organisms as a “glue” to form bricks out of Mars regolith. Voila — all made on the Red Planet.

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