2D planet lander and suspended animation get NASA cash

Space science just got a bit more far out. Paper-thin planetary landers that flutter down from space, suspended animation chambers for future Mars travellers and 3D-printed body parts. These are just a few of the ideas that will now receive cash from a NASA body tasked with looking at the future of space travel. Just don't expect to see results any time soon.

NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts programme (NIAC) has selected 12 futuristic ideas to receive a $100,000 phase one grant each for further development. Researchers behind those that show promise can then apply for a further $500,000 in phase two. This year NIAC received more than 500 proposals before whittling them down to a select few.

"These new phase one selections include potential breakthroughs for Earth and space science, diverse operations and the potential for new paths that expand human civilization and commerce into space," said NIAC programme executive Jay Falker.

The hyper-thin, "two-dimensional" lander would be built from layers of flexible electronics packed with power generators, sensors and communications devices. These would be dropped onto the surface of a planet from a passing spacecraft and simply flutter to the ground like sheets of paper.

Astronaut metabolism

The flat design could be cheaply and quickly printed on an ordinary 2D printer and negates the need for complex components such as propulsion or landing mechanisms, which have often failed on previous craft. Hamid Hemmati of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena, California, who designed the concept, says hundreds of the landers could be dropped from orbit, creating a sensor network for gathering data across a whole planet.

Other ideas would see astronauts heading to Mars entering a suspended animation chamber designed to induce deep sleep states that reduce their metabolic rate and, as a result, also reduce the level of supplies needed for interplanetary travel. Once on Mars, another proposal for 3D printing hybrid organic-inorganic materials would let astronauts replace parts of their spacesuit or even their own body.

Metal hydrogen

Previous NIAC projects include highly efficient rocket fuel made of metal hydrogen, electronic force fields that protect astronauts from radiation and using human waste to build radiation shields, which might be used by Inspiration Mars: a privately funded team planning a 2018 trip to the Red Planet.

None of the NIAC-funded proposals are expected to blast off in the near future, however. "NIAC studies are meant to be several years, perhaps a decade or even more, away from implementation," says NASA spokesperson David Steitz. "It is too early for any to have been fully implemented."

The programme was originally set up in 1998 as the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts before shutting down in 2007 and relaunching in its new incarnation in 2011, so even the earliest ideas might not be ready for a while.

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