The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program recently awarded 25 grants for the development of visionary new technologies. Here we’re going to take a closer look at the following three Phase II awards focused on advanced propulsion.

Mach Effect for In Space Propulsion: Interstellar Mission
James Woodward
Space Studies Institute, Inc.

A Breakthrough Propulsion Architecture for Interstellar Precursor Missions
John Brophy
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pulsed Fission-Fusion (PuFF) Propulsion Concept
Robert Adams
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center

Each award is worth up to $500,000 for a two-year study. Descriptions of the awards are below.
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WASHINGTON, DC (NASA PR) — NASA is investing in technology concepts that include meteoroid impact detection, space telescope swarms, and small orbital debris mapping technologies that may one day be used for future space exploration missions.

The agency selected 25 early-stage technology proposals that have the potential to transform future human and robotic exploration missions, introduce new exploration capabilities, and significantly improve current approaches to building and operating aerospace systems.

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Credit: SSI

MOJAVE, Calif. (SSI PR) — Last November Space Studies Institute NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Team Principal Investigator Dr. Heidi Fearn and Team Consultant Dr. James Woodward invited a group of friends and colleagues to discuss updates in engineering and testing of Propellant-less Propulsion, The “Woodward Effect,” The Machian Principle and other advanced physics and propulsion engineering topics.

Greg Meholic of The Aerospace Corporation, a presenter at the 2016 Estes Park Breakthrough Propulsion Workshop, offered an excellent space for this gathering in the Sally Ride Board Room at The Aerospace Corporation’s El Segundo, California headquarters.

The Space Studies Institute recorded the three day event and we are proud to begin releasing the full-length videos of the presentations starting this week on the SSI YouTube Channel ( https://www.youtube.com/c/SSISpaceStudiesInstitute ). In addition, most presenters provided their slides and we will be posting these on special new pages on the SSI.ORG website.

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SSI President Gary C Hudson shows the evolution of reading… as predicted in the book 2081 (Credit: SSI)

A note from our friends at The Space Studies Institute

We broke the news yesterday for SSI Associates to get their jump start and now it’s open for everyone:

For a limited time The Space Studies Institute is giving away the Kindle editions of Gerard K. O’Neill’s 2081 and The High Frontier for free!

2081, an amazing look at the future rising around us, and The High Frontier, the cornerstone book of the NewSpace generation, are both regularly priced at $6.99 USD but right now they are  online around the planet for free download from the Amazon.com websites and Kindle stores.

For details on 2081, just jump down to the previous SSI Blog post and as for The High Frontier, well, if you haven’t heard of it then it’s time you laid the right foundation in your Space education.

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Video Caption: Space Studies Institute President Gary C Hudson’s short intro session on the first morning of the Breakthrough Propulsion Workshop that took place in Estes Park, Colorado September 20th-23rd 2016. EM Drives, The Mach Effect, testing practices and requirements of controversial scientific engineering were just a few of the topics presented and debated at this very special gathering of theoretical and experimental physicists and engineers who work on the […]

A video of the “Extraterrestrial Prospecting” session held during the SSI Space Manufacturing 14 conference at NASA Ames Conference Center in October. Presenters discussed remote techniques for assaying and utilizing Near Earth Object resources. Session Chair: Professor Michael F. A’Hearn Water vs. Rocks: Resources for Earth or for Exploration? Prof. Michael A’Hearn, University of Maryland, Department of Astronomy Mining Methods for Asteroid Utilization Brad Blair, Space Studies Institute, and Prof. […]

Mitchell Weiss of the SEEGRID Corp. gave a presentation titled, “Application of Visually Guided, Autonomous Robots to Space Mining and Construction,” during the SSI Space Manufacturing Conference in October. A full archive of videos is located here. View the archive of PowerPoint presentations given during the conference here.

Prof. Greg Baiden of Laurentian University and Penguin Automated Systems gave a talk titled, “Lunar Mining – Taking the Best of Terrestrial Mining and Fitting it to the Moon,” during the SSI Space Manufacturing 14 conference in October. A full archive of videos is located here. View the archive of PowerPoint presentations given during the conference here.

Dr. Paul Spudis gave a luncheon talk on the latest discoveries about the moon during the SSI Space Manufacturing 14 Conference at the end of October. A full archive of videos is located here. View the archive of PowerPoint presentations given during the conference here.

Famed biologist Craig Venter spoke to a joint session of the SSI Space Manufacturing 14 Conference and NASA’s Synthetic Biology Workshop last month at the NASA Ames Conference Center. The full video archives for the Space Manufacturing Conference are here. You can view PowerPoint presentations here.