2004annualreport[2]

NASA INSTITUTE FOR
ADVANCED CONCEPTS
7th A N N U A L R E P O R T
Performance Period July 12, 2004 - July 11, 2005
Supporting Revolutionary Ideas Today,
With Advanced Concepts For Tomorrow

USRA is a non-profit cor-poration
under the aus-pices
of the National
Academy of Sciences,
with an institutional mem-bership
of 97. For more
information about USRA,
see its website at
www.usra.edu.
ANSER is a not-for-profit
public service research
corporation, serving the
national interest since
1958.To learn more about
ANSER, see its website at
www.ANSER.org.

NASA Institute for
Advanced Concepts
7 t h A N N U A L R E P O R T
Performance Period July 12, 2004 - July 11, 2005

NIAC SUPPORTS THE NASA VISION
NIAC inspires and investigates options for
future missions that may reveal technologies
and approaches which could impact near term
missions.
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NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts Above: NIAC Director, Robert A. Cassanova, Ph. D.
N I A C 7 t h A n n u a l R e p o r t

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D i r e c t o r ’ s M e s s a g e
Carrying Out NASA’s Vision
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Over the last seven contract years, the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC)
has inspired and nurtured a number of revolutionary advanced concepts that someday
may have a significant impact on future directions in aeronautics and space. This is
accomplished by encouraging and creating an operating environment to inspire con-cepts
aimed 10 to 40 years into the future for which the enabling technologies may not
be available, and/or the science may not be totally understood. NIAC actively seeks
credible, technical controversy supported by an atmosphere of open dialogue with the
technical community that encourages an examination of key technical issues.
Over the last 100 years the aerospace field has successfully responded to "grand chal-lenges"
such as high speed, powered flight and landing a man on the Moon. These
and other "grand challenges" provide a general direction for problem solving and
inspire creative and innovative application of known, or mostly understood, scientific
phenomena and technologies.
NIAC's approach is to encourage revolutionary thinking to provide the spark for "grand
visions" for giant leaps forward, stretching our scientific imagination and sustaining an
environment for credible creativity and innovation. "Grand visions" of the future may
also affect our interpretation of near-term challenges. A focus on visionary advanced
concepts turns our minds towards possibilities of performance enhancements for cur-rently
planned missions and may enable future missions that are currently viewed as
nearly impossible.
Some of the NIAC advanced concepts, for example in astronomy, access to space,
space transportation and humans in space have inspired other related, supporting sys-tem
concepts and enabling technologies which result in an architectural ensemble with
extraordinary possibilities. As a result, a number of NIAC advanced concepts have
been accepted into NASA's long range plans and have received additional funding from
NASA, other government agencies and private investors to continue the development
of the concepts and related enabling technologies.
NIAC is eager to encourage and receive concepts from a broad spectrum of scientific
disciplines and interdisciplinary fields that are not normally associated with aerospace
endeavors. Please join the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) and
NIAC in this exciting endeavor to help define the future of aeronautics and space.
Robert A. Cassanova, Ph.D.
Director, NIAC

DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE
NIAC EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Summary
Call for Proposals CP 02-01 (Phase II)
Call for Proposals CP 04-01 (Phase I)
Survey of Technologies to Enable NIAC Concepts
Special Recognition for NIAC
Coordination with NASA
Infusion of Advanced Concepts into NASA
Inspiration and Outreach
Release and Publicity of Calls for Proposals
Recruitment of Technically Diverse Peer Reviewers
NIAC Sixth Annual Meeting
NIAC Fellows Meeting
NIAC Science Council Meetings
NIAC Student Visions of the Future Program
NIAC Student Fellow Publication
NIAC Student Fellows Prize
Financial Performance
DESCRIPTION OF THE NIAC
Mission
Organization
Facilities
Virtual Institute
The NIAC Process
Solicitation
Proposals
Peer Review
NASA Concurrence
Awards
Management of Awards
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T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

PLANS FOR THE EIGHTH CONTRACT YEAR
Key Milestones
Solicitation, Selection, and Advanced Concept Awards
Identifying Grand Visions
NIAC Annual Meeting and Phase I Fellows Meeting
Outreach to the Technical Community
Coordination with NASA and other Federal Agencies
Oversight by USRA Management
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. Phase I and II Awards Performance Periods
Table 2. CP 02-01 Phase II Award Winners
Table 3. Summary of CP 03-01 Responding Organizations
Table 6. CP 04-01 Phase I Award Winners
Table 8. CP 05-01 Phase I Award Winners
Table 11. CP 02-01 Critical Enabling Technologies
Table 12. CP 03-01 Critical Enabling Technologies
Table 13. NASA - NIAC Support Team
Table 14. Visits and Contacts within NASA
Table 15. Advanced Concepts Infused Into NASA
Table 16. Current Membership of the NIAC Science Council
Table 17. Key Activities Planned for the Eighth Contract Year
APPENDICES
A. Descriptions of Enabling Technologies from NIAC
B. Infusion Status and Recommendations
C. Inspiration and Outreach Contacts
D. NIAC Publicity
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T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

E X E C U T I V E S U M M A R Y
NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts
THE NIAC STAFF. Network Engineer, Robert J. Mitchell, (above left), Business Manager,
Dale K. Little, (above center), NIAC Director, Dr. Robert Cassanova (above right), Associate
Director, Diana Jennings, Ph.D., (bottom left) Senior Science Advisor, Ronald E. Turner,
Ph.D. (bottom center), Publication Specialist, Katherine Reilly (bottom right)

NIAC is a unique organization and a process where creativity and imagination, inspired by curiosity and
the eternal quest for knowledge, are necessities, not luxuries. NIAC provides a pathway for innovators
with the ability for non-linear creativity to:
(1) define grand visions for a future world of aeronautics and space,
(2) explore the possibility of redefining realities of the future,
(3) offer revolutionary solutions to the grand challenges of future aerospace endeavors.
By operating as a virtual institute with succinct proposal requirements and efficient peer review, NIAC's
mode of operation emphasizes a flexible and open development of creative concepts with a minimum of
technical direction. However, appropriate oversight and nurturing is provided by NIAC's contractual man-agement
and technical leadership plus timely collaboration with NASA's technical staff.
During this seventh contract year, NIAC awarded 5 Phase II contracts totaling $2 million (with options),
and 24 Phase I grants totaling $1.7 million. Since the beginning of the first NIAC contract, Feb. 1998,
NIAC has received a total of 1016 proposals and has awarded 115 Phase I grants and 32 Phase II con-tracts
for a total value of $22.5 million. The awards spanned all categories of businesses with 44.2% to
universities, 47% to small and disadvantaged business, 2% to historically black colleges and universities
and minority institutions and 6.8% to large businesses. During this seventh year of operation, NIAC con-tinued
to meet the contract performance goals and, as in previous years, received an "excellent" rating
from NASA in all categories of performance.
NIAC's method of open review of its advanced concepts continued this year with a combination of open
access to reports and briefings on the NIAC website, the NIAC Annual Meeting and the NIAC Phase I
Fellows Meeting. Recipients of NIAC awards are designated as “NIAC Fellows”. The NIAC Annual
Meeting in October 2004 was especially well attended and included status briefings by Phase II Fellows,
notable presentations by invited keynote speakers and presentations by student Fellows.
NIAC's technical leadership continued its vigorous activities for education, outreach and inspiration with
presentations at universities, private industry and technical society meetings. NIAC and NIAC spon-sored
advanced concepts received widespread recognition in the popular and technical press. NIAC
Fellows were highly visible in technical society meetings with numerous presentations and publication of
technical papers.
In addition to inspiring proposals from the established technical community, NIAC began a special pro-gram
to encourage undergraduate students who have the potential for extraordinary creativity and the
ability to stretch well beyond typical undergraduate course work. The NIAC Student Fellows Prize
(NSFP), sponsored by Universities Space Research Association and managed by NIAC, was initiated in
2005 to attract these students and facilitate their advanced aerospace concepts. Five students were
selected in May 2005 to receive a $9,000 grant and will carry out their efforts during the 2005-2006 aca-demic
year.
Highlights for the eighth contract year include the beginning of the development of new Phase I and
Phase II concepts, release of new Phase I and Phase II Calls for Proposals, peer review and selection
of new Phase I and Phase II awards, hosting the Annual Meeting in October 2005 and the Fellows
Meeting in March 2006, participation in a special broadcast on Space Exploration through Georgia Public
Television for the MIT Forum and selection of the next group of NIAC Student Fellows.
9
NIAC Executive Summary

A C C O M P L I S H M E N T S
Summary
During the seventh contract year of operation, NIAC has continued the processes that it success-fully
established to inspire, solicit, review, select, fund, nurture, and infuse revolutionary advanced
concepts into NASA. The performance periods for all completed and currently planned awards
are summarized in Table 1. The following sections describe the Calls that were awarded or initi-ated
during the past year.
TABLE TABLE 1. Phase Phase I and I and II Awards II Awards Performance Performance Periods
Periods
CY02 CY03 CY04 CY05 CY06
Jan-Dec Jan-Dec Jan-Dec Jan-Dec Jan-Dec
Completed
0101
0102
0201
0202
First USRA
Contract Ends
February 11
Completed
Completed
0301
0401
CP 01-01 Phase II Contracts
CP 01-02 Phase I Grants
CY05 CY06
Jan-Dec Jan-Dec
Completed
0501
0502
Second USRA
Contract Ends
July 17
During this reporting period, these concepts (see Table 2) were in their second and final year of
contract performance. Descriptions of these concepts are available on the NIAC web site
(http://www.niac.usra.edu).
TABLE 2. CP 02-01 Phase II Award Winners
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Principal Investigator & Organization CP 02-01 Concept Proposal Title
ANTHONY COLOZZA
Solid State Aircraft
Ohio Aerospace Institute
STEVEN HOWE
Hbar Technologies
Antimatter Driven Sail for Deep Space Missions
JOHN MANOBIANCO
ENSCO, Inc.
Global Environmental MEMS Sensors (GEMS): A
Revolutionary Observing System for the 21st Century
DAVA NEWMAN
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Astronaut Bio-Suit System for Exploration Class
Missions
RAY SEDWICK
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Electromagnetic Formation Flight (EMFF)
PARVIZ SOROUSHIAN
Technova Corporation Inherently Adaptive Structural Systems

CP 03-01, a NIAC Phase II solicitation, was released on December 10, 2003. Under a new NIAC
policy, it was released to Phase I winners who had not previously been awarded a Phase II con-tract
and had not submitted a Phase II proposal for the same concept more than twice. The
respective business categories distribution of the 14 proposals received on April 30, 2004 are
summarized in Table 3.
Business Category Proposals Received Awarded
Universities 7 3
Small Businesses 6 2
Large Businesses 1 0
Total Proposals Received for CP 03-01 14 5
TABLE 3. Summary of CP 03-01 Responding Organizations
Five awards, as reflected in Table 4 were made at the conclusion of Peer Review and the
Concurrence Briefing (June 25, 2004). The contract start date for these awards was August 1,
2004. The proposals that were selected for award under CP 03-01 are summarized in Table 4
and descriptions of these concepts are available on the NIAC Web site
(http://www.niac.usra.edu).
Principal Investigator & Organization CP 03-01 Concept Proposal Title
NARAYANAN KOMERATH
Georgia Institute of Technology
Tailored Force Fields for Space-Based
Construction
CONSTANTINOS MAVROIDIS
Northeastern University Bio-Nano-Machines for Space Applications
ALEXEY PANKINE
Global Aerospace Corporation
Sailing the Planets: Science from Directed
Aerial Robot Explorers
JOHN SLOUGH
University of Washington The Plasma Magnet
PAUL TODD
Space Hardware Optimization Technology Robotic Lunar Ecopoiesis Test Bed
11

Phase I solicitation, CP 04-01, was released on April 2, 2004 with a proposal due date of June 7,
2004. On this date, 113 proposals were received and the applicable statistics pertaining to type
of submitting organization are summarized in Table 5.
Universities 35 7
Small Disadvantaged Businesses 12 1
National Labs 1 0
A total of 12 awards were made from the 113 proposals received in response to CP 04-01. The
applicable concurrence briefing to NASA was made on August 19, 2004 with the award date for
the 12 being October 1, 2004. The proposals that were selected for award under CP 04-01 are
summarized in Table 6 and abstracts are available on the NIAC Web site (http://www.niac.usra
.edu).
TABLE 6. CP 04-01 Phase I Award Winners (continued on next page)
12
Principal Investigator &
Organization CP 04-01 Concept Proposal Title
ROGER ANGEL
University of Arizona
A Deep Field Infrared Observatory Near the
Lunar Pole
IVAN BEKEY
Bekey Designs Incorporated
Extremely Large Swarm Array of Picosats for
Microwave/RF Earth Sensing, Radiometry, and
Mapping
WENDY BOSS
North Carolina State University
Redesigning Living Organisms to Survive on
Mars
CHARLES BUHLER
ASRC Aerospace Corporation
Analysis of a Lunar Base Electrostatic Radiation
Shield Concept
WEBSTER CASH
University of Colorado New Worlds Imager
RICHARD FORK
University of Alabama, Huntsville
Efficient Direct Conversion of Sunlight to
Coherent Light at High Average Power in Space

JEFFREY HOFFMAN
Massachussetts Institute of
Technology
Use of Superconducting Magnet Technology for
Astronaut Radiation Protection
RICKY MORGAN
Aerospace Missions Corporation
Wide Bandwidth Deep Space Quantum
Communications
JEROME PEARSON
Star Technology and Research
Lunar Space Elevators for Cislunar Space
Development
CHRIS PHOENIX
Center for Responsible
Nanotechnology
Large-Product General-Purpose Design and
Manufacturing Using Nanoscale Modules
ROBERT WINGLEE
University of Washington
Magnetized Beamed Plasma Propulsion
(MagBeam)
CRAIG WOOLSEY
Virginia Polytechnic Institute
A Self-Sustaining, Boundary-Layer-Adapted
System for Terrain Exploration and
Environmental Sampling
TABLE 6. CP 04-01 Phase I Award Winners (continued from previous page)
November 12, 2004 was the release date for Phase I CP 05-01. The corresponding due date
was February 14, 2005 at which time NIAC received 158 proposals and the peer review process
began. A Concurrence Briefing was given to NASA on May 12, 2005 followed by the award of 12
grants to begin on September 1, 2005.
13
Universities 56 3
Small Disadvantaged Businesses 12 3
National Labs 1 0
The proposals that were selected for award under CP 05-01 are summarized in Table 8 and
abstracts are available on the NIAC Web site (http://www.niac.usra.edu).

14
YOUNG K. BAE
Bae Institute
A Contamination-Free Ultrahigh Precision Formation Flight
Method Based On Intracavity Photon Thrusters and
Tethers
JAMES BICKFORD
Draper Laboratory
Extraction of Anitparticles Concentrated in Planetary
Magnetic Fields
ERIC BONABEAU
Icosystem Corporation
Customizable, Reprogrammable, Food Preparation,
Production and Invention System
BRIAN GILCHRIST
University of Michigan
Scalable Flat-Panel Nano-Particle MEMS/NEMS
Propulsion Technology for Space Exploration
GERALD P. JACKSON
Hbar Technologies, LLC Antimatter Harvesting in Space
GEORGE MAISE
Plus Ultra Technologies, Inc.
Multi-Mice: A Network of Interactive Nuclear Cryoprobes
to Explore Ice Sheets on Mars and Europa
PAMELA A. MENGES
Aerospace Research Systems Artificial Neural Membrane Flapping Wing
MASON PECK
Cornell University College of
Engineering
Lorentz-Actuated Orbits: Electrodynamic Propulsion
Without a Tether
JAMES POWELL
Plus Ultra Technologies
Magnetically Inflated Cable (MIC) System for Space
Applications
HERBERT SCHNOPPER
Smithsonian Astrophysical
Observatory
Ultra-High Resolution Fourier Transform X-Ray
Interferometer
GERALD A. SMITH
Positronics Research LLC
Positron Propelled and Powered Space Transport Vehicle
for Planetary Missions
NESTOR VORONKA
Tethers Unlimited
Modular Spacecraft with Integrated Structural
Electrodynamic Propulsion
TABLE 8. CP 05-01 Phase I Award Winners

Phase II CP 05-02 was released on November 10, 2004 with a proposal due date of May 2, 2005.
On this date, 15 proposals were received. The applicable statistics pertaining to type of submit-ting
organization and award recipients are summarized in Table 9 and 10, respectively. Abstracts
are available on the NIAC website (htttp://www.niac.usra.edu). Awards are planned for
September 1, 2005.
15
Universities 10 5
Small Disadvantaged Businesses 2
Small Businesses 2
Large Businesses 1
WENDY BOSS
North Carolina State University Redesigning Living Organisms for Mars
WEBSTER CASH
University of Colorado, Boulder New Worlds Imager
STEVEN DUBOWSKY
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
Microbots for Large-Scale Planetary Surface and
Subsurface Exploration
ELIZABETH McCORMACK
Bryn Mawr College
Investigation of the Feasibility of Laser Trapped
Mirrors
SIMON WORDEN
Steward Observatory, University
of Arizona
A Deep Field Infrared Observatory near the
Lunar Pole

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Survey of Technologies to Enable NIAC Concepts
Beginning with the fifth Annual Report that covered the contract performance period ending in July
2003, NIAC has surveyed the critical enabling technologies for the NIAC Phase II concepts. The
purpose of this survey is to provide
NASA with inputs to their invest-ment
strategy for advanced tech-nologies
that would enable further
Enabling Technologies COLOZZA HOWE MANOBIANCO SEDWICK NEWMAN SOROUSHIAN
development of the NIAC concept
and provide additional justification
for general categories of advanced
technologies that may enable a
broad range of future missions.
Two sets of Phase II contracts were
actively funded during this contract
year. Six CP 02-01 studies were in
their second year (performance
period from September 2003
through August 2005), and five CP
03-01 advanced concepts were in
their first year (performance period
from October 2004 through
September 2006). Each of these
Phase II Fellows was asked to
respond to the following questions
related to critical technologies to
enable their concept:
(1) What are the three most critical
technologies to enable the further
development of your NIAC con-cept?
Please give a brief explana-tion,
two or three sentences,
describing the critical relationship of
each technology to your concept.
(2) What are the other technologies
that are important for the further
development of your concept?
Please briefly describe their rela-tionship
to your concept.
The eleven responses are com-pletely
reported in Appendix A along
with short explanations of the rela-tionship
of each technology to the
advanced system or architecture
(Tables 11 and 12).
CP 02-01 Critical Enabling Technologies
Ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC)
Thin film photovoltaic array
Flexible batteries or capacitors
Flapping wing aerodynamics
IPMC control scheme / EM field generation
Production/formation of antihydrogen
Formation & storage of nano-flakes of solid antihydrogen
Tuned photovoltaic conversion of fission energy into elec-tricity
Production and accumulation of antiprotons
Integration and miniaturization of electronics
Advanced distributed communications
Lightweight high strength materials (e.g. carbon nan-otube
based polymers)
Advanced thin-film solar cell technology
Thin-film batteries or thin-film capacitors
Three-dimensional textile deposition, to enable the for-mation
of anisotropic material with specific mechanical
properties
Shape-changing polymers that provide human-scale
force
Information technology, wearable computing, energy, and
human power harvesting integration across the entire
EVA system
High current density, high temperature super conducting
wire
Higher efficiency cryo-coolers
Distributed control algorithms
High density, high strength, non-conducting materials
from which reaction wheels can be manufactured
Development of nanostructured piezoelectric
materials
Advances in development of solid electrolytes for energy
storage
Developments in ion-conducting nanocomposites TABLE 11. CP 02-01 Critical

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CP 03-01 Critical Enabling Technologies
Large-scale direct conversion of solar energy to tunable radio and microwave
frequencies
Intelligent robotic manipulators
On-orbit tele-robotics for assembly
Beamed microwave power
Network-based space sensing for planetary environments
Smart self repairing / healing artificial skin architecture
Advanced bio-nano-components such as actuators, joints, sensors, etc.
Distributive intelligence for programming and control
Bio-nano-world to macro-world integration
Automatic fabrication of bio-nano-robots
Advanced balloon envelope materials
Lightweight balloon guidance system
Guidance and navigation algorithm development
Reliable and robust entry descent and inflation systems
Advancements in energy storage and power generation technologies
High efficiency fuel cells, high-efficiency thin-film solar arrays, and lightweight photo-voltaic
devices
Advanced technology structural materials with high strength-to-weight ratios, e.g. car-bon
nanotubes
Advanced power processing unit
Solar wind detection system
Advanced guidance systems
Pioneer organisms
Laboratory ecopoiesis test bed
Efficient and safe miniaturized simulated planetary environments
Access to extraterrestrial venues
Novel laboratory information networks
Microbial health assessment
TABLE 12. CP 03-01 Critical Enabling Technologies
TODD SLOUGH PANKINE MAVROIDIS KOMERATH

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Special Recognition for NIAC
On August 24, 2004, the USRA/ANSER-NASA
NIAC team received the NASA
Sharon Garrison
(left), Bob
Cassanova (cen-ter)
Group Achievement Award. The ceremony
was held at Martin’s Crosswinds in
Greenbelt, Maryland. The award was
accepted for the group by Bob
Cassanova. Plaques have been awarded
to each of the members. The photo below
shows Sharon Garrison, Bob Cassanova
and Sophia Hill (USRA Contract
Specialist) after the awards ceremony.
The USRA/ANSER-NASA NIAC Team's recent NASA Honor Award was also recognized in the
October 2004 Goddard News. The article was entitled "NIAC Team Wins Award for Six-Year Walk
on the Wild Side". Bill Steigerwald, of the GSFC Public Affairs Office, described NIAC and the
NASA Honor Award the NASA government and non-government NIAC team received in August
2004. See the Publicity section for the link to the article.
Coordination with NASA
and Sophia Hill
(left, USRA
Contract Specialist)
receive the
USRA/ANSER-NASA
NIAC
Team's recent
NASA Honor
Award
Sharon Garrison (left), the NASA Coordinator for NIAC, is in the
Advanced Concepts and Technology Office (ACTO) of the Flight
Program and Projects Directorate at NASA Goddard Space Flight
Center (GSFC). She is the primary point-of-contact between NIAC
and NASA. Ms. Garrison actively communicates throughout
NASA to a review team comprised of representatives from the
Mission Directorates and Centers. Table 13 is a listing of these
representatives. Throughout the process of managing NIAC,
these representatives are kept informed by Ms. Garrison of the
status of the Institute and are appropriately involved in decisions and feedback. NIAC provides
monthly contract status reports and an annual report to the NASA Coordinator who forwards
these reports to the support team and others within NASA.
On April 21, 2005, Sharon Garrison was notified by Admiral Craig Steidle, Associate Administrator
for Exploration, that the Exploration Systems Research and Technology Development Team will
receive the NASA Group Achievement Award. Ms. Garrison is a member of this team.

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NASA COTR NASA
Headquarters
TABLE 13. NASA-NIAC Support Team
Throughout this NIAC contract, the NIAC Director
briefed the associate administrators and other
senior technical staff at NASA Headquarters and
the directors of NASA Centers. The purpose of
these briefings is to facilitate the eventual transi-tion
of NIAC advanced concepts into NASA long
range plans, to inform them about the plans for
NIAC, and to seek their active support and feed-back.
Yearly, NASA was requested to provide
visionary, grand challenges for use in future NIAC
Calls for Proposals. In addition, NASA technical
staff presented overviews of related NASA
advanced concept activities to the NIAC Director.
NIAC also participates in student programs spon-sored
through the NASA Centers.
NASA Mission
Directorates NASA Centers
Sharon Garrison John Mankins
Space Operations:
Stanley Fishkind
Aeronautics:
Murray Hirschbein
Science:
Harley Thronson
Lou Shuster
Gordon Johnston
Exploration Systems:
Chris Moore
Human Health and
Performance:
Gale Allen
Stephen Davison
ARC: Larry Lasher
DFRC: Steve Whitmore
GRC: Daniel Glover
GSFC: Lisa Callahan
...JPL: Neville Marzwell
JSC: Al Conde
...KSC: Robert Youngquist
LaRC: Dennis Bushnell
...MSFC: John Cole
SSC: Bill St. Cyr
In July 2004, NIAC Director, Bob Cassanova (far
left) visited with 20 NASA Academy Students at
the University of Maryland.
SEMINAR
NASA Academy
15
July
2004
Bob Cassanova and Sharon Garrison presented a semi-nar
to 20 NASA Academy Students on the campus of the
University of Maryland.
NIAC INFORMATION
REQUEST
NASA Headquarters
August
2004
Bob Cassanova received an inquiry from Cheryl Yuhas at
NASA HQ for information on NIAC funded concepts relat-ed
to unmanned aerial vehicles for gather Earth
Sciences data. He sent information related to the follow-ing
NIAC funded concepts: "Solid State Aircraft" by
Anthony Colozza, "Directed Aerial Robot Explorers" by
Alexey Pankine, "A Self-Sustaining, Boundary-Layer-
Adapted System for Terrain Exploration-and
Environmental Sampling" by Craig Woolsey.
Table 14. Visits and Contacts within NASA (continued on next page)

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BRIEFING
NASA Headquarters
13
September
2004
Bob Cassanova, Ron Turner and Sharon Garrison met in
NASA HQ with Mary Kicza, Bernie Seery (by conference
call), Gary Martin, Karen Blynn, Craig Cornelius, and
Rich Doyle (by conference call) regarding the
Commission's Report to NASA to create a DARPA-like
entity at NASA for which NIAC can serve as a model.
INPUT
NASA Technology
Inventory Database
17
September
2004
Inputs to the NASA Technology Inventory Database of
the most recent NIAC awards for advanced concepts
were completed by Dale Little, Bob Cassanova and
Sharon Garrison.
SYMPOSIUM
Live Broadcast On
NASA TV Hosted By
Administrator
Sean O’Keefe
27-28
September
2004
Dr. Penny Boston, NIAC Phase II Fellow, was one of the
participants in the symposium, "Risk and Exploration:
Earth, Sea and the Stars," that was carried live on NASA
TV and webcast on www.nasa.gov from the Naval
Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. During this spe-cial
symposium hosted by Administrator Sean O'Keefe,
NASA examined the similarities between space explo-ration
and other terrestrial expeditions with the help of
some of the best known explorers in the world, including
mountain climbers, deep sea explorers, scientists and
science fiction writers. The discussions also included
NASA astronauts, other notable aeronautics and deep
space explorers.
PRESS RELEASE
NASA Headquarters
GSFC
28
September
2004
NASA Headquarters issued a Press Release entitled,
“NASA Explores Future Space with Advanced Concepts
Awards”. The release was submitted to NASA HQ by Bill
Steigerwald of the GSFC Public Affairs Office. The link to
the release: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2004/
sep HQ_04315_niac.html
MEETING WITH
MAYRA MONTROSE
NASA HQ
12
May
2005
Bob Cassanova, Diana Jennings and Ron Turner met
with Mayra Montrose to discuss NIAC contributions to the
"21st Century Explorer" project which is a public outreach
program aimed at the Hispanic community near NASA
JSC. NIAC provided concept descriptions and graphics
which will be integrated into the publications and displays
for the project.
CONCURRENCE
BRIEFING
NASA HQ
12
May
2005
The concurrence briefing for CP 05-01 was held at NASA
HQ. As a result of the peer review and concurrence
process, twelve concepts were selected to receive an
award.
TABLE 14. Visits and Contacts within NASA (continued on next page)

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MEETING WITH
CHRIS MOORE
NASA HQ
12
May
2005
Bob Cassanova, Sharon Garrison, Diana Jennings and
Ron Turner met with Chris Moore to discuss the process
of infusion of NIAC concepts into NASA.
PHASE I PROJECT
DESCRIPTIONS
Internal Briefing
NASA HQ
6
June
2005
Bob Cassanova and Kathy Reilly provided a two page
Powerpoint summary of the new Phase I awards to Chris
Moore for use in an internal briefing at NASA HQ.
TABLE 14. Visits and Contacts within NASA (continued from previous page)

22
Infusion Of Advanced Concepts Into NASA
One of the contract performance metrics that is included in the USRA contract with NASA is that
5 - 10% of the selected concepts are infused into NASA's long range plans. After a concept has
been developed and nurtured through the NIAC process, it is NASA's intent that the most prom-ising
concepts will be transitioned into its program for additional study and follow-on funding.
NIAC has taken a proactive approach to this infusion process. In addition to the routine activities
to maintain public awareness and visibility for all its funded advanced concepts, NIAC orches-trates
the following activities:
- Conducts status and visibility briefings with NASA researchers and managers;
- Provides names of key NASA contacts to NIAC Phase I and Phase II Fellows;
- From the beginning of the Phase II Call for Proposals, NIAC connects Fellows with
NASA to provide synergy and optimal program consideration for future follow-on
funding by NASA;
- Invites NASA leaders to Phase II site visits to participate in status and planning discussions;
- Encourages NIAC Fellows to publish their work in technical society meetings and technical
journals;
- Supports NIAC Fellows to gain NASA testing/evaluation with NASA facilities key to advanced
concept verification;
- Presents technical briefings to other government agencies such as the Department of
Defense and the National Reconnaissance Office to generate awareness of NIAC
concepts applicable to their missions;
- Extends invitations to key technical leaders in non-NASA agencies and private industry to
get keynote addresses at NIAC meetings which create opportunities for NIAC Fellows to
interact with these organizations.

23
CONCEPT INVESTIGATOR STATUS
Astronaut Bio-Suit for
Exploration Class Missions Dava Newman
The NIAC Phase II contract will be com-pleted
August 31, 2005. An additional
$250K has been allocated by NASA HQ to
continue the development for an addition-al
12 months.
The Space Elevator Bradley
Edwards
The Space Elevator has received $2.5M in
congressional directed funding after the
completion of the NIAC Phase II contract.
In addition, Dr. Edwards has formed a new
company, Carbon Nanotechnology (CNT),
which has received several million from
private investors to continue the develop-ment
of carbon nanotube materials. CNT
also signed a cooperative agreement with
Los Alamos National Lab for continued
development of the Space elevator.
Moon and Mars Orbiting
Spinning Tether Transport Robert Hoyt
Since the NIAC Phase II contract was
completed, Tethers Unlimited, Inc. has
received several competitive SBIR awards
in excess of $2 million to continue the
development.
The Mini-Magnetospheric
Plasma Propulsion System,
M2P2
Robert Winglee
The M2P2 was included in the NASA
Decadel Plan. The M2P2 was funded by
MSFC to continue experiments confirming
computer models. Robert Winglee and
John Slough have received $700K from
the NASA STTR program to continue the
development of a high powered helicon
component. Contact has been estab-lished
with the JSC VASIMR program to
explore collaboration.
X-Ray Interferometer Webster Cash
The NIAC sponsored X-Ray Inter-ferometer
helped crystallize the MAXIM
program, the Micro Arc second X-ray
Imaging Mission, within the planning at
NASA. MAXIM is now a "Vision Mission"
for the future. Maxim Pathfinder, a step-ping
stone at 100 mas is a mid-term mis-sion.
Global Constellation of
Stratospheric Scientific
Platforms
Kerry Nock
RASC funded a $200K study with GAC on
balloon constellations. Ultra-long duration
balloons and balloon constellations are
now begin considered as platforms for
Earth Sciences missions. GAC gave an
invited seminar at NRO on balloon con-stellations.
Table 15. Advanced Concepts Infused Into NASA (continued on next page)

24
CONCEPT INVESTIGATOR STATUS
Very Large Optics for the Study
of Extrasolar Terrestrial Planets Neville Woolf
This concept is directly associated with the
"Life Finder" that is specifically mentioned
in the NASA Science long range plan.
Additional funding was received from the
National Reconnaissance Office for con-tinued
development of light-weight optical
components.
Entomopter for Mars Anthony
Colozza
The investigator, Anthony Colozza, has
been contacted by DoD to explore possi-bilities
of continuation funding.
Electromagnetic Formation
Flight (EMFF)
Raymond
Sedwick and
David Miller
The National Reconnaissance Office is
now exploring possibilities for continuation
of funding.
Solid State Aircraft Anthony
Colozza
The investigator, Anthony Colozza, has
been contacted by DoD to explore possi-bilities
of continuation of funding.
The Plasma Magnet John Slough
The contract with U. of Washington is
approaching the midpoint. A site visit is
scheduled in August 2005. Appropriate
NASA personnel will be invited to the site
visit to participate in a discussion of the
theoretical and experimental results of the
plasma sail development. John Slough
and Robert Winglee have received $700K
from the NASA STTR program to continue
the development of a high powered heli-con
component Contact has been estab-lished
with the JSC VASIMR program to
explore collaboration.
Table 15. Advanced Concepts Infused Into NASA (continued from previous page)
As a natural consequence of NIAC's open, semi-annual meetings and the posting of advanced con-cept
final reports on the NIAC website, other U.S. government agencies have actively pursued contact
with selected NIAC Fellows.
Some of these contacts have resulted in these non-NASA agencies providing funding directly to the
NIAC Fellow to continue the development of the concept. As a result, NASA benefits by leveraging the
technical and financial resources of other aerospace-related government agencies.
NASA also has a proactive approach to considering NIAC concepts for further study. The NIAC
Director and the NASA COTR, Sharon Garrison, collaborate to generate periodic reports on the sta-tus
of infusion with a particular emphasis on concepts that have a high probability of successful devel-opment
and should be actively considered by NASA. An example of this infusion report is contained
in Appendix B.
By the end of this contract year, the concepts listed in Table 15 have successfully begun the process
of transitioning into NASA, or other government agencies, as evidenced by the receipt of additional
funding from NASA or other agencies, or by being specifically noted in NASA long range plans.

25
Inspiration and Outreach
The NIAC strives to welcome innovators of all ages and backgrounds to participate in the process
of expanding our future possibilities. Inspiring these communities is a continual activity of the NIAC
with consistent, active contact with technical communities, the educational community and the
public at large. The NIAC maintains a high degree of connectivity with a diverse cross-section of
innovative researchers in established and emerging technical disciplines. Appendix C provides a
listing of the inspiration and outreach activities conducted during the seventh contract year of oper-ation.
General outreach is accomplished in many ways, for example, through the NIAC website and dis-tribution
of NIAC brochures and posters. NIAC Annual Meetings and Fellows Meetings are open
to all.
NIAC staff and Fellows are vocal advocates of advanced concepts within the educational audi-ence.
Some NIAC Fellows actively engage students in classwork aimed at the development of
advanced concepts or participate in outreach activities within their home organizations. NIAC staff
frequently speak at schools, museums, and to student groups.
Frequently, NASA and other organizations turn to NIAC for content related to math, science and
engineering education. For example, NIAC staff and the NASA Coordinator are working with NASA
to provide input for a new educational outreach program, 21st Century Explorers. Also, in 2005 the
work of NIAC Fellows was featured on the Futures Channel, a well-known developer of education-al
materials.
The accomplishments of NIAC Fellows create a near-constant demand for information. Press
releases, often orchestrated through talented NASA staff, capture the attention of press outlets
around the world. NIAC staff are consistently available for public comment and as resources for a
broad array of publications, radio and television programming, acting too as a conduit for the
media to directly interface with NIAC Fellows. During the seventh year of contract operation, the
work of the NIAC was featured in numerous highly visible publications, including Discover
Magazine, The Washington Post, Scientific American, Wired, and The Christian Science Monitor.
The World Wide Web also carried numerous stories for NIAC fellows on popular sites such as
ABCnews.com, Space.com and CNN.com.
NIAC maintains an open line of communication with leaders in the global technical community
through the NIAC web site and participation in national and international technical society meet-ings
through the presentation of technical papers and use of NIAC display booths (e.g., American
Physical Society). The NIAC leadership also provides advocacy by orchestrating vigorous dia-logue
about revolutionary concepts through active participation in appropriate technical societies
(American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the International Astronautical Federation and
the American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology) and in technical committees affiliated
with these societies. NIAC actively pursues exposure with aerospace industry associations
through presentations, often as an invited participant, to these organizations. The NIAC leadership
and NIAC Fellows also present invited seminars at universities, non-NASA research agencies and
non-aerospace industry associations and non-aerospace industries, such as BellSouth. The NIAC
annual meeting, the annual NIAC Phase I Fellows meeting and focused NIAC workshops provide
opportunities for open analysis and advocacy of currently funded advanced concepts as well as
an unbiased and open-minded examination of revolutionary concepts and enabling technologies.

26
SPECIAL APPOINTMENT OF SENIOR SCIENCE ADVISOR
National Research Council (NRC) Panel
NIAC Senior Science Advisor, Ron Turner, was appointed chairman of the
NRC's Panel D: Human Health and Support Systems which is part of the
NRC's review of the NASA capability roadmap. He was named as a mem-ber
of the NRC panel for review of the NASA Space Flight System Strategy
Roadmap.
The leadership of NIAC, including the Director, Associate Director and Senior Science Advisor,
promote revolutionary, advanced concepts through participation, primarily by invitation, on steer-ing
and oversight committees organized by NASA and other civilian agencies, Department of
Defense, National Academy of Sciences, and National Research Council committees. This key
activity continues to provide open examination and expansion of the NIAC process for advocacy,
analysis and definition of advanced concepts. NIAC regularly interfaces with other U.S. research
agencies to (1) stay informed about technology breakthroughs developed by these agencies; (2)
encourage feedback to NIAC Fellows from a diverse constituency of research organizations; (3)
explore the potential for supplemental funding for NIAC advanced concepts; and (4) establish
links with the community of researchers funded by these agencies.
Release and Publicity of Calls for Proposals
There are various methods used to release and publicize the NIAC Phase I Calls for Proposals.
Some of the ways that NIAC solicits Calls to the community are as follows:
Notices are sent to the NIAC email distribution list, generated
from responses by individuals who signed up on the NIAC
web site to receive the Call; Announcements on professional
society web sites or newsletters (American Institute for
Aeronautics and Astronautics, American Astronautical Society,
the American Astronomical Society and the American Society
of Gravitational & Space Biology); Announcements on the
USRA and NIAC web sites; Web links from NASA Enterprises
Web pages; Web link from the NASA Coordinator’s Web
page; Announcements to a distribution list for Historically
Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU), minority institutions
(MI) and small disadvantaged businesses (SDB) provided by
NASA; Distribution of announcements to an Earth Sciences
list provided by NASA GSFC; Announcements distributed at
technical society meetings, Distribution of NSVFP
Announcement through the Space Grant College Directors
and the USRA Council of Institutions. Since Phase II awards
are based on a down-select from Phase I winners, all Phase
II Calls for Proposals are emailed directly to past Phase I win-ners
who have not previously received a Phase II contract. In
addition to the ongoing publicity through the NIAC web site,
NIAC activities have been the subject of numerous articles in
national and international publications and press specifically
citing NIAC activities during the seventh contract year.
Publications Featuring
Articles about NIAC

27
The NIAC brochure (above) has been
widely distributed within NASA, other
government agencies, technical soci-eties,
universities and science-oriented
public.
The NIAC poster (above) has
become a useful tool for
soliciting and increasing
NIAC's visibility. It is distrib-uted
by the NIAC staff at
numerous meetings, work-shops,
seminars and confer-ences.
A 6 foot x 8 foot NIAC exhibit and booth (above) is another useful tool for
increasing NIAC’s visibility at various national scientific meetings.

28
Recruitment of Technically Diverse Peer Reviewers
The NIAC leadership has developed an efficient and proven method for identifying and selecting
the most qualified and appropriate external review panel members to evaluate proposals submit-ted
to the Institute. NIAC has continuously recruited experts across a broad cross-section of tech-nical
expertise and a total of 269 individuals have been used, thus far, for peer review. In order
to ensure a continuous refreshment of the available expertise representing newly emerging tech-nologies
within the scientific community, the NIAC leadership continually recruits additional
reviewers for each new peer review cycle. NIAC peer reviewers recruited by USRA include sen-ior
research executives in private industry, senior research faculty in universities, specialized
researchers in both industry and universities, and aerospace consultants.
One significant resource that the Institute has employed successfully and will continue to exploit
is the personal knowledge of the NIAC Director, Associate Director, and Senior Science Advisor
of many qualified experts in a wide variety of fields related to NIAC. Some of these experts have
a prior association with NIAC, some served previously as NIAC reviewers, and some participat-ed
in one of the Grand Challenges workshops. Others may have been suggested by NIAC
Science Council members. An additional resource of qualified peer reviewers can be found in the
authors of publications cited in the proposals to be reviewed. These researchers often represent
the forefront of knowledge in a specific, emerging technology directly relevant to the proposed
study.
NIAC Sixth Annual Meeting
The 6th Annual Meeting of the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts was held on October 19-
20, 2004 at the Grand Hyatt in Seattle, Washington. The meeting was attended by approximate-ly
118 people including NIAC Phase I and Phase II Fellows, NASA representatives, USRA man-agement,
news media, members of the NIAC Science Council, members of the technical commu-nity
and the NIAC/ANSER leadership team. There were two keynote speakers: Paul Spudis, from
the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab spoke on “The New Presidential Space Vision” and
Robert Hoyt from Tethers Unlimited spoke on “Space Tethers: Lessons for Developing
Revolutionary Technologies”. There were eleven Phase II concept status reports, four NIAC stu-dent
Fellow briefings, twelve Phase I concept posters and six NIAC student posters. All presen-tations
have been posted on the NIAC website. The Futures Channel taped interviews with
Sharon Garrison, Bob Cassanova and select NIAC Fellows. The program is available at The
Futures Channel online.
Bob Cassanova presented his opening remarks (left). NIAC Annual Meeting attendees in the lecture
hall (center); Luncheon at the Grand Hyatt in Seattle, Washington (right).

29
The NIAC Science Council viewed all of the student
posters (see photo at left), discussed each student
advanced concept with the author and selected the
concept developed by Andrew Bingham of
Clarkson College for a presentation at the following
NIAC Phase I Fellows meeting in March 2005. The
title of his concept is “Deployment of an Interstellar
Electromagnetic Acceleration System”.
NIAC Fellows Meeting
The NIAC Phase I Fellows Meeting was held at the Technology Square Research Building in
Atlanta, Georgia on March 15 - 16, 2005. All current Phase I Fellows presented a status briefing
on their advanced concepts. All presentations, attendance list, and the agenda are accessible via
the NIAC website at http://www.niac.usra.edu. Special insight was provided through the presen-tations
of the following keynote speakers:
- Richard Wassersug, Dalhousie University - “What Do We Really Know About How Animals
Develop and Behave in Weightlessness?”
- Joel Achenbach, Washington Post - ”Whatever Happened to the Space Age?”
- Chris Moore, NASA HQ - “Overview of NASA's Space Technology Program”
NASA COTR, Sharon
Garrison (left) speaks
with NIAC Fellow, Robert
Winglee (right)
NIAC Fellows Meeting attendees
in an informal discussion session
Illustration by
Fellows Meeting
attendee, stu-dent
Shahla
Abdi, age 16.
NIAC Science Council Meetings
The NIAC Science Council met with the NIAC leadership, USRA management and the NASA
COTR immediately following the October 2004 Annual Meeting and the March 2005 Fellows
Meeting. The Council meetings began with an informal dinner after the adjournment of the NIAC
meetings and continued on the next day. The NIAC technical leadership (Director, Associate
Director and Senior Science Advisor) presented a status report of all NIAC activities since the last
Council meeting and discussed the plans for the next 12 months. The meetings concluded with
the Council giving a summary of their observations and recommendations.

30
The NIAC Science Council met on October 20, 2004 at the Grand Hyatt in Seattle, Washington.

31
NIAC Student Visions of the Future Program (NSVFP)
Beginning with the sixth and into the seventh year of contract operation, USRA sponsored the
NIAC Student Visions of the Future Program (NSVFP) which inspired undergraduate students to
use their imagination and creativity to develop advanced concepts. The essential structure was
as follows. In response to highly publicized Calls for Proposals, individual students or multi-dis-ciplinary
groups of students, overseen by a faculty advisor, developed proposals addressing
space-related advanced concepts with timeframes decades into the future. Selected students or
teams were designated as "NIAC Student Fellows". In Phase I Student Fellows presented posters
describing their ideas at competitions during the NIAC Annual or Fellows Meetings. The most
innovative of these concepts, as judged by the NIAC Science Council, were then invited to
become Phase II Student Fellows. Phase II Fellows further developed their ideas for a presenta-tion
at the next NIAC meeting.
Phase I NSVFP: Six projects were selected for the Phase I NSVFP in the seventh contract year.
The following NIAC Student Fellows projects were selected from proposals received on
September 1, 2004. The students presented their projects in poster format at the 6th Annual
Meeting held October 2004 in Seattle, WA.
ANDREW BINGHAM, Clarkson University, "Deployment of an Interstellar Electromagnetic
Acceleration System"
XIADONG LIU, YU LIANG, & QICHANG LIANG, Michigan State University, "Propulsion by the
Recoil of the Field Momentum"
CHRIS MALOW & DANIELLE ADAMS, University of Virginia, "Humanitarian Systems Enabled
by Space Solar Power"
HUNTER MARKS, Louisiana State University, "Towards a Decision Support System for
Selecting a Landing Site on Mars"
TOMMY SEBASTIAN, North Carolina State University, "Lunar Scout Vehicle - A Novel Long-
Range Lunar Rover"
NEIL TORONTO, Brigham Young University, "Creative Autonomous Vehicles"
Phase II NSVFP: In the seventh contract year, NIAC supported five Phase II NSVFP projects.
These projects were selected in competitions held at NIAC meetings by a team comprised of the
NIAC Science Council and experts from NIAC and USRA. Four projects were presented as brief-ings
at the October 2004 meeting in Seattle. These students were Phase I Fellows at the March
2004 meeting.
ZACH ADAMS, University of Washington, "The Origin of Life and Spaceflight Biospherics in situ
Free Radical Polymerization Processes for Space System Applications"
FLORIN MINGIREANU, Louisiana State University, "Ramjet Statoreactor"
DARIN RAGOZZINE and FRANK WHITE, Harvard University, "Collectible Projectosats"
KEN VAN DYKEN, JOEL EIGEGE, PAUL SOKOMBA and DAN MOUW, Calvin College, "Global
System for Monitoring Earth Radiation Balance"
One project was presented as a briefing at the March 2005 meeting in Atlanta. This project was
selected from the Phase I poster competition held at the October 2004 meeting: ANDREW BING-HAM,
Clarkson University, "Deployment of an Interstellar Electromagnetic Acceleration System"
Many of the presentations made by NIAC Student Fellows can be found at www.niac.usra.edu.

32
NIAC Student Fellows Prize (NSFP)
Following the October 2005 meeting, the NIAC leadership team
in consultation with the NIAC Science Council moved to create a
dramatically different program to identify and nurture creative,
innovative undergraduates who have shown exceptional creativ-ity
and promise for future success in building visions of the future.
The NIAC Student Fellows Prize (NSFP), sponsored by
Universities Space Research Association and managed by NIAC,
was initiated in 2005 to attract these students and facilitate their
studies. The Prize, in the amount of $9,000 dollars, is intended to
foster mentoring, networking, and creativity, and is a student's
first opportunity to exercise responsibility in project management.
The first competition in this program was advertised beginning in
January 2005. Twenty-two proposals were submitted by the due
date of April 15, 2005. These proposals were submitted by individual students or multidisciplinary
groups of students, overseen by a faculty advisor. Awards will be distributed to the students
beginning on September 1, 2005.
Each of the winners will be responsible for three progress reports as well as two presentations:
the first, a poster presentation at NIAC's Annual meeting in October 2005 in Boulder, Colorado,
and the second, a briefing to be delivered at NIAC's Fellows meeting in Atlanta March, 2006.
Over the academic year it is hoped that interaction with the broader NIAC community will inspire
and enrich the work of these gifted students. NIAC staff will publicize the efforts of the students
which will serve the winners and enhance the Prize's attractiveness.
The next call for proposals for the Prize will be released in January 2006 with a due date expect-ed
in April 2006. NIAC staff will expand awareness of the Prize and the Call through various
strategies, including increased communication with technical organizations and universities.
The winners of the NIAC Student Fellows Prize for Academic Year 2005-2006:
Andrew Bingham, Clarkson University - "Interstellar Exploration by Repeated External
Acceleration"
Nicholas Boechler, Georgia Institute of Technology - "Direct Conversion for Solar Space Power"
Aimee Covert, University of Michigan - "Advanced Concept for the Detection of Weather
Hazards on Mars: Non-Thermal Microwave Emissions by Colliding Dust/Sand Particles"
Joseph Fronczek, New Mexico State University - "Bio-Inspired Sensor Swarms to Detect Leaks
in Pressurized Systems"
Brian Sikkema, Michigan Technological University - "Wind-Driven Power Generation on Titan"

33
NIAC Student Fellow Publication
Jarret LeFleur, NIAC Student Fellow, had his paper on his NIAC concept, "Daedalon", accepted
for publication at the AIAA Space Exploration Conference (paper number AIAA 2005- 2771). Ron
Turner attended the conference, distributed NIAC brochures and had numerous conversations
with potential Phase I proposers, science writers, NASA representatives and other members of
the technical community.
Financial Performance
The NIAC measures its financial performance by how well it minimizes its operational expenses
in order to devote maximum funds to viable advanced concepts. For this reporting period, 74%
of the NIAC’s total budget was devoted to advanced concept research and development. We
take great pride in this achievement.

34
D E S C R I P T I O N O F T H E N I A C
Mission
The NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) was formed for the explicit purpose of
functioning as an independent source of revolutionary aeronautical and space concepts that
could dramatically impact how NASA develops and conducts its missions. The Institute pro-vides
a highly visible, recognized and high-level entry point for outside thinkers and
researchers. The ultimate goal of NIAC is to infuse the most promising NIAC-funded
advanced concepts into future NASA plans and programs. The Institute continues to function
as a virtual institute and utilizes Internet resources whenever productive and efficient for com-munication
with grant and subcontract recipients, NASA, and the science and engineering
communities.
NOW 10 years 20 years 30 years 40 years
The NIAC Mission
MISSION
DIRECTORATES
Exploration Systems
Space Operations
Science Research
Aeronautics Research
NIAC MISSION:
Revolutionary Advanced Concepts
ARCHITECTURES
-Overall plan to accomplish a goal.
-A suite of systems, their operational methods
and interrelationships capable of meeting an
overall mission or program objective.
SYSTEMS
-The physical embodiment of the architecture.
-A suite of equipment, software, and operational
objective.
NASA
PLANS &
PROGRAMS
TECHNOLOGY
Enablers to construct
the system.

35
N I A C F O C U S
Revolutionary concepts for
systems and architectures
that can have a major impact
on future missions of the
NASA Enterprises, inspire the
general public, and excite the
nation’s youth.
N I A C M E T H O D
Provide a pathway for innova-tors
with the ability for non-lin-ear
creativity to explore revo-lutionary
Organization
The NIAC staff is located at the NIAC Headquarters office in Atlanta, Georgia, the Washington,
D.C. area, the greater Boston area, and the Chicago area.
Since NIAC is an Institute of the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), the NIAC
Director reports to the President of USRA. USRA uses many methods in its management of
NIAC to ensure NASA is provided with quality service at a reasonable price. Approximately 70%
of the funds provided by NASA for the operation of NIAC are used for funding advanced con-cepts.
USRA refers to the remaining 30% of the NIAC budget as NIAC operations costs. Three
general management processes and/or methods are employed to provide a comprehensive and
cost-effective, advanced concepts development program for NASA. First, USRA uses a proven
solicitation and peer review process to solicit, evaluate, and select proposed advanced concepts.
Once new concepts are selected for funding, USRA employs the second phase of its acquisition
management approach, which is to award a grant or contract to the selected organizations. To
accomplish this, USRA uses its government-approved purchasing system. USRA personnel
working this aspect of the acquisition process are guided by the USRA Procurement Manual,
which is modeled from the Federal Acquisition Regulations. After the appropriate contractual
instrument has been awarded, USRA monitors overall performance against the respective pro-posed
budget and concept development milestones through bi-monthly reports from the princi-pal
investigators covering technical, schedule, and budget status.
solutions to the
grand challenges of future
aerospace endeavors.

36
NIAC SCIENCE COUNCIL
John Evans
Lynda Goff
Keith Raney
Donna Shirley-Chair
Parker Stafford
Jack Stuster
Michael Yarymovych
USRA Board of Trustees
USRA President
USRA HEADQUARTERS
Corporate Resources
NIAC LEADERSHIP
Robert A. Cassanova
Director
Diana E. Jennings
Associate Director
Ronald E. Turner *
Senior Science Advisor
NIAC HEADQUARTERS
STAFF
Dale K. Little
Business Manager
Robert J. Mitchell *
Network Engineer
Katherine M. Reilly
Publications Specialist
NIAC FELLOWS
Concept Development
TECHNICAL CONSULTANTS
Peer Reviews
Site Visits
Keynote Speakers
NIAC Organization (* denotes ANSER employee)
ANSER, through a subcontract from USRA-NIAC, brings unique knowledge and expertise to the
NIAC program by providing technical and programmatic support to the operation of the Institute.
ANSER's participation in the operation of NIAC enables the Institute to have access to significant
resources developed over decades of support to the government through the Department of
Defense (DoD). ANSER provides a means to stay aware of innovative DoD and Homeland
Security (HS) activities relevant to NASA and NIAC. ANSER has a long association with U.S. mil-itary
aerospace activities, DoD research facilities, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency (DARPA). ANSER's Homeland Security Institute maintains a close working relationship
with agencies and organizations involved in homeland security. This facilitates a means to intro-duce
NIAC Fellows and concepts to the relevant DoD and HS communities. At ANSER's initia-tive,
several NIAC Fellows have presented their research in invited talks in classified settings
(e.g., through an NRO speaker's forum). These well-attended presentations get additional expo-sure
after the taped talk and the electronic slides are posted on a DoD Web site. ANSER supports
the operation of the Institute as an electronic virtual entity.
As a corporate expense, the NIAC Science Council was formed to oversee the operation of NIAC
on behalf of the relevant scientific and engineering communities. The Council is composed of a
diverse group of thinkers, eminent in their respective fields, and representing a broad cross-sec-tion
of technologies related to the NASA Charter. The Council has a rotating membership with
each member serving a three-year term. The USRA Board of Trustees appoints all Council mem-bers.
The current membership of the NIAC Science Council is listed in Table 16.

37
MEMBER AFFILIATION
Dr. Robert A. Cassanova NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) [ex officio]
Dr. John V. Evans Aerospace Consultant
Dr. Lynda J. Goff University of California-Santa Cruz
Dr. R. Keith Raney Johns Hopkins University
Dr. Donna L. Shirley - Chair University of Oklahoma
Mr. Parker S. Stafford Aerospace Consultant
Dr. Jack Stuster Anacapa Sciences, Inc.
TABLE 16. Current Membership of the NIAC Science Council
Facilities
NIAC Headquarters occupies 2,000 square feet of professional office space in Atlanta, GA. The
staff is linked via a Windows 2000-based Local Area Network (LAN) consisting of four Pentium 4
PCs, one Macintosh G3 and three UNIX servers. Internet access is provided via a fiber-optic link
through the Georgia Tech network. Other equipment includes one Dell Inspiron 7000, one IBM
Thinkpad T-21, one IBM Thinkpad T-41, one NEC MT 1030 LCD projector, one flatbed scanner,
one Xerox Phaser 7300DN printer, one HP Color LaserJet 5 printer, one HP LaserJet 4000TN
printer, one HP LaserJet 3100 facsimile machine and a Sharp AR405 copier.
The servers use RedHat Linux for their operating systems, Apache for the Web server, Sendmail
for the email server, Sybase SQL server for the database, and OpenSSL for Web and email secu-rity.
The workstations use Windows 2000 for their operating systems, Microsoft Office XP
Professional for office applications, Netscape Communicator for email access, and Adobe
Acrobat for distributed documents.
Virtual Institute
NIAC envisions progressive use of the Internet as a key element in its operation. The Internet is
the primary vehicle to link the NIAC office with NIAC fellows, NASA points-of-contact, and other
members of the science and engineering communities. The Internet is also the primary commu-nication
link for publicizing NIAC, announcing the availability of Calls for Proposals, receiving pro-posals,
and reporting on technical status. All proposals must be submitted to NIAC in electronic
format. All reports from the fellows to NIAC and from NIAC to NASA are submitted electronically.
The peer review of proposals is also conducted electronically whenever the peer reviewer has
the necessary Internet connectivity and application software.
ANSER created and maintains the NIAC web site (http://www.niac.usra.edu) which serves as
the focal point of NIAC to the outside world. The web site can be accessed to retrieve and sub-mit
NIAC information and proposals. The NIAC web site is linked from the NASA GSFC Flight
Programs & Projects Directorate web site (http://ntpio.nasa .gov/niac/) and the NASA Research
Opportunities web site (http://search.nasa.gov/nasasearch/search/search.jsp?
nasaInclude=niac&Simple+Search.x=27&Simple+Search.y=1), the Office of Earth Science

38
Research Opportunities at (http://www.earth.nasa.gov/nra/current/index.htm) and the Small
Business Innovative Research program at (http:// sbir.nasa.gov). Numerous other links to the
NIAC Web site are now established from NASA Centers and science and engineering Web
sites. Figure 5 depicts the new NIAC Web site.
The New NIAC Web Site Design - http://www.niac.usra.edu.

39
The NIAC Process
The NIAC process inspires
and moves toward an ulti-mate
goal of infusing revo-lutionary
advanced con-cepts
into NASA’s long
range plans across the
Agency.
NIAC's role is to provide
additional options for con-sideration
by NASA with
potentially revolutionary
improvement in aerospace
performance and the
resulting dramatic exten-sion
of mission and pro-grammatic
goals. NIAC
provides a pathway for
innovators with the ability
for non-linear creativity to
explore revolutionary solu-tions
to the Grand
Challenges of future aero-space
endeavors. The ulti-mate
goal of the NIAC process is to infuse the most successful advanced concepts into main-stream
plans and programs.
NIAC follows a process of Inspiration, Solicitation, Review, Selection and Nurturing leading to
Infusion in its pursuit of advanced concepts. This process often provides Inspiration for enabling
technologies and subsystems, scientific Discovery and an expansion of the Knowledge base.
Typical NIAC activities related to "Inspiration" and "Nurturing" are described in detail in the
Accomplishments section that begins on page 10 of this report and include the production and
distribution of numerous publications describing NIAC and its funded concepts, active participa-tion
in technical meetings and societies, and attendance at numerous invited seminars, etc.
Nurturing is further accomplished through Phase II site visits and NIAC sponsored meetings.
Throughout this process, NIAC engages in critical ongoing activities for:
- Active involvement with all constituencies of the technical community;
- Collaboration and communication with government, industry and academia;
- Connectivity with technology-oriented organizations;
- Inspiration, education and outreach through the educational community and the
mainstream press;
- Supportive management and nurturing of NIAC awardees;
- Feedback from its customers, other agencies and constituencies of the technical
community at large.

40
Solicitation
The actual solicitation for advanced concepts is assembled and published by the NIAC staff.
The technical scope of the solicitation emphasizes the desire for revolutionary advanced con-cepts
that address all elements of the NASA mission. The scope of work is written to inspire
proposals in all NASA mission areas and contains brief descriptions of NASA Enterprise areas
of emphasis. In general, proposed advanced concepts should be:
- Revolutionary, new and not duplicative of concepts previously studied by NASA,
- An architecture or system,
- Described in an aeronautics and/or space mission context,
- Adequately substantiated with a description of the scientific principles that form the
basis for the concept,
- Largely independent of existing technology or a unique combination of systems and
technologies.
Over the last 100 years of scientific and engineering development, there have been many notable
concepts, technical accomplishments and scientific breakthroughs that have had a revolutionary
impact on transportation within the Earth’s atmosphere, the exploration of our solar system and
beyond, and on our understanding of the cosmos. Creative and often intuitive approaches may
lead to revolutionary paradigm changes and interpretative applications or concepts.
The Phase I Call for Proposals continues to express a special interest in receiving proposals for
innovative and visionary concepts from disciplines that are normally focused on non-aerospace
endeavors and may have the potential for innovative application in the aerospace sector. These
concepts may be emerging at the interface of traditional disciplines where innovation often spring
forth in non-aerospace fields.
The evaluation criteria for Phase I and Phase II concepts are included in the solicitation and
structured to convey what is being sought, and are summarized on the next page.

41
6 months / $50 - $75K
Up to 24 month / Up to $400K
1. How well have the benefits been
qualified in the context of a future aero-nautics
and/or space mission appropri-ate
to the NASA charter and responsibili-ties?
2. How well is the concept described in
a system or architecture context?
3. Is the concept revolutionary rather
than evolutionary? To what extent does
the proposed activity suggest and
explore creative and original concepts
that may initiate a revolutionary para-digm
4. Is the concept substantiated with a
description of applicable scientific and
technical disciplines necessary for devel-opment?
5. How well conceived and organized
is the study work plan, and does the
team have appropriate key personnel
and proven experience?
1. Does the proposal continue the devel-opment
of a revolutionary architecture or
system in the context of a future NASA
mission? Is the proposed work likely to
provide a sound basis for NASA to consid-er
the concept for a future mission or pro-gram?
2. Is the concept substantiated with a
description of applicable scientific and
technical disciplines necessary for devel-opment?
3. Has a pathway for development of a
technology roadmap been adequately
described? Are all of the appropriate
enabling technologies identified?
4. Are the programmatic benefits and
cost versus performance of the proposed
concept adequately described and under-stood?
Does the proposal show the rela-tionship
between the concept’s complexity
and its benefits, cost, and performance?
NIAC Proposal Evaluation Criteria
PHASE I -
PHASE II -
change?
The NIAC Calls for Proposals are distributed in electronic form only. Under a typical schedule for
NIAC operation, NIAC solicits annually for one Phase I and one Phase II. The release of these
proposals generally occur in the latter half of the calendar year.
These revolutionary concepts may be characterized by one or more of the following attributes:
- The genius is in the generalities, and not the details,
- The new idea creates a pathway that addresses a roadblock,
- It inspires others to produce useful science and further elaboration of the fundamental idea,
- It contributes to a shift in the world view,
- It triggers a transformation of intuition.

42
Proposals
In order to be considered for
award, all proposals are required
to be submitted to NIAC electron-ically
as a .pdf file. Technical pro-posals
in response to Phase I
Call for Proposals are limited to
12 pages; whereas, Phase II
technical proposals are limited to
25 pages. There is no page limit
for cost proposals.
Phase II proposals are only
accepted from proposal authors
who have previously received a
Phase I award, have not previ-ously
received a Phase II follow-on
contract and have not submit-ted
their Phase II proposal more
than twice. The deadline for sub-mission
is the same for the
Phase II proposal and associat-ed
Phase I final report. Phase I
Fellows may submit a Phase II
proposal at any time after com-pletion
of their Phase I grant, but
it must be received by NIAC by
the designated deadline in order
to be considered in a particular
review cycle.
Receive Proposals Electronically and
Log into NIAC Proposal Database
Review of Proposals by 3 Internal
Reviewers for Responsiveness
Assign 3 (or more) External
Reviewers from the Technical
Community per Proposal
Send Proposals to Reviewers
(Electronically if possible)
Receive Proposal Peer Review
Evaluations (Electronically if possible)
Review Panel Prioritization by
a Subset of Peer Reviewers
Present Concurrence Briefing
to NASA
Follow-up With NASA
Key Technical Contacts
Concurrence by NASA
Notify Selected Award Winners and
Electronically Transmit Feedback
Initiate Grant/Contract Negotiations
NIAC Peer Review Process
Peer Review
Peer reviewers are selected from the technically appropriate reviewers in the NIAC database.
Additional reviewers are recruited as needed to adequately represent the technical emphasis of
each proposal. Each reviewer is required to sign a non-disclosure and a non-conflict-of-interest
agreement prior to their involvement. A small monetary compensation is offered to each review-er.
The technical proposals and all required forms are transmitted to the reviewer via the Internet,
by diskette or by paper copy, depending on the electronic capabilities of the reviewer.

43
Reviewers are given approximately thirty days to review the technical proposals and return their
completed evaluation forms. Each proposal receives at least three independent peer reviews.
Each reviewer evaluates a proposal according to the criterion stated in the Call for Proposals.
Templates/forms are created to help guide the reviewer through the process of assigning a
numerical ranking and providing written comments. Only NIAC and USRA staff analyze cost pro-posals.
To help ensure that a proposed concept is not duplicating previously studied concepts, NIAC
accesses the NASA Technology Inventory Database and other public NASA databases to search
for related NASA-funded projects. Results of the peer reviews are compiled by NIAC, rank-ordered
by a review panel, and prepared for presentation to NASA HQ at a concurrence briefing.
NASA Concurrence
The NIAC Director presents the prioritized research selections to the representatives of NASA
Associate Administrators of the NASA Mission Offices before the final selection and announce-ment
of awards. Technical concurrence by NASA, required before any subgrants or subcontracts
are announced or awarded, is obtained to ensure consistency with NASA’s Charter and to ensure
that the concept is not duplicating concepts previously or currently being developed by NASA.
Awards
Based on the results of the NIAC peer review, technical concurrence from NASA HQ and the
availability of funding, the award decision is made by the NIAC Director. All proposal authors are
notified electronically of the acceptance or rejection of their proposals. If requested, feedback
based on the peer review evaluation comments is provided to the non-selected proposal authors.
The USRA contracts office then begins processing contractual instruments to each of the winning
organizations. The NIAC staff inputs all pertinent technical information regarding the winning pro-posals
into the NASA Technology Inventory Database as well as on the NIAC Web site. The “prod-uct”
of each award is a final report. All final reports are posted on the NIAC Web site for public
viewing.
Management of Awards
NIAC will continue to require all Phase I (grant) and Phase II (contract) recipients to submit bi-monthly
and final reports. All Phase II contractors will be required to host a mid-term site visit and
to submit an interim report before the end of the first half of their contract. Participants in the site
visits will include the NIAC Director, invited experts in the technical field of the concept, and NASA
representatives who may be able to facilitate the eventual transition to its long-range NASA fund-ing.
All Phase II Fellows are required to give a status briefing at the NIAC annual meeting. All
Phase I Fellows are required to present a poster at the Annual Meeting and give a status briefing
at the Phase I Fellows workshop held near the end of their Phase I grant.

P L A N S F O R T H E 8 t h C O N T R A C T Y E A R
Key Milestones
The activities planned for the eighth contract year will emphasize the continuous broadening and
diversification of outreach and inspiration to the technical community. These efforts are aimed
at reinforcing the NIAC environment that encourages and nurtures the constituency of innovators
from all segments of the U.S. engineering and scientific community. NIAC will also build on the
past successes of transitioning advanced concepts into NASA and other agencies in support of
NASA's visions for all segments of aeronautics and space. Table 17 summarizes the major activ-ities
to be conducted and key milestones to be achieved in the eighth contract year.
During the eighth year of the NIAC contract, NIAC will accomplish the following major activities:
- Initiate a continuing identification of Grand Visions for Aeronautics and Space,
- Host the 8th Annual Meeting in October 2005,
- Release the next Phase I and and Phase II Calls for Proposals in November 2005,
- Conduct the peer review, concurrence and selection of Phase I and Phase II Awards,
- Release the next Call for Proposals for the NIAC Student Fellows Prize in January 2006
and announce the winners by May 2006,
- Conduct site visits with currently funded Phase II Fellows for the purposes of oversight
and exploration of opportunities for transition to NASA and other agencies,
- Present status briefings to the NASA leadership in Headquarters and the Centers when-ever
appropriate,
- Stay closely engaged with the technical community and the technically oriented public
through participation in technical societies, presentation of technical papers and
presentation of seminars to universities and civic groups,
- Be responsive to inquiries from the media for inputs to articles in newspapers,
magazines and web-based news services.
TABLE 17. Key Activities Planned for the Eighth Contract Year
ACTIVITY 2005 2006
Phase I CP 0501
Phase II CP 0502
Phase 1 CP 0601
Phase II CP 0602
Annual Meeting
Phase I Fellows Meeting
Science Council Meeting
Student Fellows Prize
MIT Forum Broadcast
Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Release Call for Proposal
Review and Selection
Announce Awards
Grant and Contract Performance Periods
Events
44 44

45
Solicitation, Selection and Advanced Concept Awards
Proposals received in response to the Phase II solicitation, CP 05-02, were peer reviewed and
the review panel was conducted near the end of the seventh contract year. The concurrence
briefing for CP 05-02 is scheduled for July 14, 2005 at NASA HQ. Phase II awards will be
announced in early August 2005.
The next Phase I Call for Proposals, CP 06-01 will be released in November 2005 with a due date
in February 2006. The peer review, selection and concurrence will take place from March
through May 2005 with an anticipated announcement of awards by June 2006 with a grant start
date of September 1, 2006. The next Phase II Call for Proposals will be released in November
2005 with a due date in early May 2006. The peer review, selection and concurrence will take
place from May through July 2006. Phase II awards will be announced in late July or early August
2006 with a contract start date of September 1, 2006.
Identifying Grand Visions
Prior to the release of each annual Phase I Call for Proposals, NIAC with the assistance of the
contract COTR, polls each of the NASA Directorates to identify Grand Challenges that serves to
focus the creativity of potential proposers on critical challenges of aeronautics and space.
Beginning with this contract year, NIAC plans to give a special emphasis on extending the vision
of the technical community beyond identifiable challenges toward visions of future possibilities.
"Grand Challenges" are generally structured to inspire solutions to difficult situations and are
problem solving exercises. They inspire creative application of known scientific phenomena and
technologies. Whereas, "Grand Visions" are structured to inspire giant leaps forward and can
provide an environment for creativity, imagination and innovation unfettered by near term reali-ties.
NIAC is planning an on-going effort to identify "Grand Visions" that can be the emphasis of future
Phase I Calls for Proposals. Activities aimed at identifying "Grand Visions" may include:
- Formal solicitation of inputs from each of the NASA Directorates,
- Hosting a one-day, by invitation only, workshop for key NASA technical leaders and
innovators to brain-storm about visions that extend well beyond NASA long range plans,
- Sessions in NIAC Annual and Fellows Meetings structured to encourage unfettered and
creative discussion of vision stretching possibilities for aerospace endeavors,
- An open call for "Grand Visions" on the NIAC website to encourage a continuous
dialogue with NIAC on "Grand Visions".
NIAC Annual Meeting and Phase I Fellows Meeting
The next NIAC Annual Meeting is scheduled for October 10-11, 2005 at the Omni Interlocken
Resort in Denver, Colorado. Speakers will include all currently funded Phase II Fellows, who will
give a status report on their concept, and two or more keynote speakers. As of the publication
date of this report, confirmed keynote speakers include Dr. Paul MacCready, President of
Aerovironment, Dr. Fred Adams, Professor at the University of Michigan and Courtney Stadd,
Bigelow Aerospace.

46
The next NIAC Phase I Fellows meeting will be held in Atlanta, GA near the NIAC Headquarters
and include status briefings by all of the currently funded Phase I Fellows and invited presenta-tions
by several keynote speakers.
Outreach to the Technical Community
The NIAC website will continue to be the primary, on-going vehicle for continuous communication
with the technical community. The leadership of NIAC will strategically participate in technical
society activities and give invited presentations to other government agencies universities, indus-try
and civic organizations. The NIAC technical leadership will accept invitations from non-NASA
agencies to give seminars and to receive tours of technical facilities to enhance and support
NIAC's effectiveness and NASA's long term goals.
On September 22, 2005, the MIT Forum is sponsoring a special broadcast throughout the MIT
Forum network from the studios of Georgia Public Broadcasting. The theme of this 1.5 hour
broadcast will be "The Power of Revolutionary Thinking: Driving Innovations for Today and
Tomorrow". Speakers will be Robert Cassanova and NIAC Phase II Fellows Bradley Edwards,
Penelope Boston and Dava Newman. The short presentations will be followed by questions from
participants from the audience and the Internet.
Oversight by USRA Management
The NIAC Science Council will meet to receive an overview of the status and plans of NIAC on
the day following each of the scheduled Annual Meetings and Fellows meetings. The Council will
issue a report to USRA management and NASA on the operation of NIAC and will offer sugges-tions
for future activities.

47
APPENDIX A
Descriptions of Enabling Technologies from NIAC
CP 02-01 Studies (Performance Period: September 2003 - August 2005)
SOLID STATE AIRCRAFT
Anthony Colozza, Ohio Aerospace Institute, anthony.colozza@grc.nasa.gov
CRITICAL TECHNOLOGIES
1. Ionic Polymer Metal Composite (IPMC). The development of the IPMC material is
one of the most critical issues to the viability of the concept. Further development that
will demonstrate the ability to make large sections of the material as well as the demon-stration
and characterization of its behavior under various operational and control con-ditions
is critical to the concepts viability.
2. Thin Film Photovoltaic Array. The solid state aircraft (SSA) is powered by the use of
a flexible thin film solar array. The development of thin film array materials can greatly
enhance the capabilities of the SSA. The array characteristics that will have a signifi-cant
effect on the vehicles performance are specific mass (kw/kg), overall efficiency and
substrate compatibility. If the photovoltaic material can be deposited onto another com-ponent
such as a thin film battery or the IPMC material itself, the integration of the SSA
can be greatly enhanced.
3. Flexible Batteries or Capacitors. To store energy between wing flaps a battery or
capacitor must be used. To integrate these into the aircraft they will need to be light-weight,
compact and flexible. Development of a suitable energy storage medium is crit-ical
to the SSA's operation.
OTHER TECHNOLOGIES
1. Flapping Wing Aerodynamics. A detailed understanding of the fluid dynamics of flap-ping
wing flight is needed to optimize the SSA design and minimize power consump-tion.
2. IPMC Control Scheme / EM Field Generation. A control scheme for the IPMC mate-rial
is needed to provide a viable flight vehicle. This control consists of the generation
and tailoring of an EM filed which in turn induces the motion of the IPMC. The develop-ment
would consist of the capability to generate a field that is tailored in strength and
polarity over the wing area as well as the understanding of what that distribution would
need to be to achieve the correct wing motion.

48
ANTIMATTER DRIVEN SAIL FOR DEEP SPACE MISSIONS
Dr. Steven D. Howe, Hbar Technologies, LLC, showe@hbartech.com
The antimatter sail concept relies on the ability to use antiproton induced fission as a
propulsion method. The key technologies therefore to enabling this concept are: 1) pro-duction/
formation of sufficient amounts of antihydrogen, 2) formation and storage of
nano-flakes of solid antihydrogen, and 3) development of the Tuned Photovoltaic
Conversion (TPC) method of converting fission energy into electricity. The formation of
antihydrogen molecules is the first step to making the storage of flakes feasible. The sus-pension
of a charged nano-flake electrostatically will demonstrate the storage concept.
Both of these technologies can be demonstrated in the near term using normal-matter
protons. The TPC concept uses fission to induce scintillation in a medium. The wave-length
of the scintillation is tuned to the acceptance of a photovoltaic cell for high efficien-cy
conversion. The TPC could be demonstrated using radioisotopes and currently avail-able
scintillating materials.
OTHER TECHNOLOGIES
Another significant technology is the production and accumulation of antiprotons. The
current production levels need to be greatly increased in order to make sufficient quanti-ties
for deep space missions.
GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL MEMS SENSORS (GEMS): A REVOLUTIONARY
OBSERVING SYSTEM FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
John Manobianco, ENSCO Inc., manobianco.john@ensco.com
1. Electronics. The further integration and miniaturization of electronics is a critical
enabler of the GEMS system. Sensing, processing, and storage must all be combined in
a robust monolithic design to implement the final GEMS probe.
2. Communications. State of the art communication systems today such as ad-hoc or
mesh networks will not likely support the massive number of probes envisioned for the
GEMS system. Since scaling limitations exist for these networks, new protocols and hard-ware
must be developed to overcome these difficulties or alternative systems such as low
power point-to-point satellite communications or hybrid ad-hoc/satellite communications
must be employed.
3. Materials. The probes must meet specific design criteria in order to maximize the dwell
time in the atmosphere. The probe shell material must be capable of withstanding enor-

49
mous pressures at high altitudes, but also be incredibly light. Carbon nanotube based
polymers are needed to provide an ultrathin, lightweight, high tensile strength material for
the shell.
OTHER TECHNOLOGIES
1. Power. The current solution for power generation is thin-film solar cell technology. The
two primary candidates in this arena are thin-film amorphous silicon cells and nanoparti-cle
dye cells. Although, thin-film solar cells are an excellent material for power genera-tion,
the probe must also be capable of storing power for night-time operation. Two pos-sible
options include thin-film batteries or thin-film capacitors.
ASTRONAUT BIO-SUIT SYSTEM FOR EXPLORATION CLASS MISSIONS
Dava Newman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, dnewman@mit.edu
1. Three-dimensional textile deposition, to enable the formation of anisotropic material
with specific mechanical properties. Also, the ability to assemble a garment in three
dimensions through patterning of fibers and incorporation of other materials (e.g., pas-sive
and active elements). We have determined the initial material property requirements
as well as fiber orientation (March 2005, Bi-Monthly Report): tensile strength > 60 N (13
lbf) and an elastic modulus that is initially high but that approaches zero as the strain sur-passes
30% and the load reaches 30 N. The target operating range for the fiber or fab-ric
is at tensile loads of 30 N ±5 N and strains of 50% ±20%. We are continuing our inves-tigation
in to 'electrospinlacing' technology for this application. 3D material deposition will
enable a spacesuit to be exactly custom-fit to its wearer. The ability to give the textile
specified mechanical properties in specific directions will enable a spacesuit to mimic the
deformation of the skin.
2. Shape-changing polymers that provide human-scale force. Often these are called "arti-ficial
muscles" and they include dielectric elastomers, electrostrictive polymers, shape
memory polymers, and mechano-chemical polymers and gels. These active polymers
will enable a mechanical counterpressure spacesuit to apply pressure to the body sur-face
after the suit has been donned and may be activated by body temperature. They will
also allow for local control of the tension in the spacesuit fabric; our analysis shows a
requirement for 30-70% local contraction or stretch around moving joints to provide con-stant
pressure over different curvatures of the body surface.
3. Information technology, wearable computing, energy, and human power harvesting
integration across the entire EVA system. Integration of the space suit with smart EVA
tools via data automation; integration of the space suit and EVA tools with other compo-nents
of the EVA system including robotic elements. Lightweight, portable, long-duration
sources of power, or the ability to harvest the human body's waste energy to power
BioSuit and EVA life support systems. Essentially, spacesuits for planetary exploration

50
require advancements in battery technology. Longer duration traverses will require more
energy for the astronauts' life support systems, but the additional energy cannot come by
increasing the on-back mass for the astronaut. The use of electroactive fibers and mate-rials
for spacesuit shape control or for biomedical sensing will also require additional
energy.
OTHER TECHNOLOGIES
1. Distributed sensing for temperature, humidity, chemicals, and mechanical stress.
These sensors can monitor life support functions and serve as flexible keyboards (inter-faces)
for garments, and they can provide shape control for fabrics.
2. Edema assessment using the Bowman Perfusion Monitor from Hemedex has been
completed and reported at Aerospace Medical Association (ASMA) Annual Conference,
May, 2005 (Treviño, L. and Carr, C.).
ELECTROMAGNETIC FORMATION FLIGHT (EMFF)
Raymond Sedwick, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, sedwick@mit.edu
1. The primary enabling technology for EMFF is high current density, high temperature
super conducting wire. The current state of the art is about 13 kA/cm2, which allows it to
be a competitive technology with thruster-based systems. However, the force between
two identical spacecraft scales as the square of this current density, for a fixed mass and
coil size, so increases in this density will greatly improve the viability of this technology
at greater distances. The wire being used is a matrix of superconducting material and
regular metal, to provide strength and flexibility. The superconducting material has been
lab tested to an upper limit of 6,000 kA/cm2, so the improvements need only come in the
manufacturing process of the wire.
2. A second technology which will allow EMFF to function in Earth orbit is higher efficien-cy
cryo-coolers. Current thermal designs appear to require on the order of 10s of Watts
per coil of thermal power removal, translating to 100s of Watts of electrical power input
to cryo-coolers for each coil. This appears to be the driving power requirement for the
system.
3. The third most critical technology is distributed control algorithms. Unlike thruster
based systems, movements within an EMFF system must be coordinated between mul-tiple
spacecraft simultaneously. This is a very complex control problem, which must be
solved to make the technology viable.
OTHER TECHNOLOGIES
1. One potentially useful technology is high density, high strength, non-conducting mate-

2004annualreport[2]

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