[Music]
the universe is a big place and there's
a lot to explore out there there are
distant icy moons and fiery atmospheres
and everything in between and
understanding how all these places work
can teach us more about earth and open
our eyes to some wonder along the way
except exploring space is not easy and
the most groundbreaking missions usually
require some really creative engineering
so that's where the niacc program comes
in it stands for the nasa innovative
advanced concepts program and it gives
scientists and engineers a chance to
explore ideas that can transform future
missions in an earlier episode we talked
about some of 2019's most advanced niacc
projects but it's worth giving some
attention to the other concepts too
because even though they're in the early
stages of development they could mean
big things for our future also they're
just really cool for context the niacc
program is broken into three phases when
a researcher thinks they have a good
idea they can apply to phase one if they
get accepted they win 125 000 and get
nine months to figure out if their idea
is actually feasible if it is they can
apply to phase two in this phase
researchers are given five hundred
thousand dollars and two years to start
to develop their project and finally if
all that goes well they can apply to
phase three in this last stage they're
given two million dollars and another
two years to work and by the end of this
phase nasa or another organization
should be able to pick up their project
for further development every year
there's a new class of phase one two and
three concepts but no matter what phase
they're in all of the projects are
fascinating take one of 2019's phase one
projects called breeze it stands for
bio-inspired ray for extreme
environments and zonal exploration and
it's a flyer designed to withstand the
harsh winds of venus that also looks a
lot like a cute little stingray although
venus is our closest neighbor and about
earth-sized its atmosphere is vastly
different around the planet winds blow
at hurricane force and because of all
the greenhouse gases that trap the sun's
heat surface temperatures can reach more
than 470 degrees celsius that's hot
enough to melt lead venus is kind of a
barren wasteland but scientists believe
that studying it may help us better
understand the effect of greenhouse
gases as well as how planets evolve in
general and with a maneuverable flyer
like breeze we could study areas all
around the planet this concept is
currently being developed by an
associate professor at the university of
buffalo and it would maneuver similarly
to how birds fly over the ocean birds
take advantage of the fact that wind
speed changes at different altitudes
with air moving faster the higher you go
to increase velocity they fly downward
picking up speed from the descent and
wind at their tail then they loop around
to fly back into the faster moving air
using their higher velocity and tailwind
to create lift it's a pretty efficient
flying method so it makes sense that
engineers would want to adapt it for
their spacecraft too in this case breeze
would use the zonal winds that travel
around venus parallel to its equator
internal cables would control its
altitude and flap its wings and the
planet's atmosphere would do the rest
using a variety of instruments brees
would travel around and collect data on
weather patterns chemistry volcanoes and
even the planet's geography we'll need
to wait until 2020 to see if the mission
pans out but even if it doesn't the
physics it uses could someday be
incorporated into future missions
another phase one concept taking
inspiration from nature is called mp4ae
which stands for microprobes propelled
and powered by planetary atmospheric
electricity it's being developed by a
west virginia university associate
professor and its ultimate goal is to
study planets atmospheres by deploying
thousands of tiny probes since this is
only a phase one study the project
doesn't have a specific planet in mind
but the researcher does have an idea
about how they would work these probes
would imitate a flying technique that
some species of spider use it's called
ballooning and evidence suggests it
happens when the spiders spin a
sail-like trail of web and use it to
ride the wind and the atmosphere's
electric field the fact that the
atmosphere has its own electric field
might seem a little weird at first but
it's because the earth's surface and its
upper atmosphere actually have different
charges the surface of the planet has a
slight negative charge while the higher
region of the atmosphere called the
ionosphere has a positive charge this
creates a global electric circuit that's
maintained by thunderstorms and varies
in strength depending on the weather you
almost definitely won't notice it during
your daily life but some spiders take
advantage of it all the time because
spider silk has a negative charge it's
repelled by the ground and actually
generates enough lift to propel the
spider upwards this seems to allow these
spiders to travel kilometers through the
air and these phase one microprobes are
hoping to do the same thing the 50
milligram probes would consist of a
small payload pod hanging from a 200
meter loop of string the string would
provide drag which would slow the probes
and cause them to drop through the air
an electrostatic lift would raise them
up researchers would even be able to
control their altitude at least somewhat
by regulating the string's electric
charge through a device on the probe
today if we're going to study a planet's
atmosphere we typically use a space
telescope or a single orbiting satellite
the mp4ae would allow us to study huge
chunks of an atmosphere at once and in a
lot more detail these concepts are
inspired by animals but this last one
seems like something straight out of
science fiction it's a propulsion method
where the spacecraft is powered by
lasers it's being developed by a member
of the texas a m engineering experiment
station and it was accepted as a phase
two study in april of 2019. it's called
proxima and while it could someday help
spacecraft travel to places like pluto
and the outer solar system it's
specifically designed to go to proxima
centauri b this is a planet orbiting the
closest star to our sun and if proxima
works it would enable humanity's first
trip to a planet outside of our solar
system this project is a form of beamed
energy propulsion which is pretty much
what it sounds like some kind of remote
power source beams energy to the
spacecraft and that heats up the
spacecraft's propellant and creates
thrust since proxima is only a phase two
project there's a lot left to figure out
like where in space that remote power
source would go but ultimately this
method offers a big advantage for long
distance spacecraft since not having an
onboard power source will make them much
lighter the researcher even has a
strategy for how to keep proxima's laser
beam narrow and focused over long
distances using a few types of beams so
maybe when we send the first spacecraft
to another solar system it could be
powered by a method like this at the end
of the day there's a chance that none of
these phase one or two projects will
make it to the next round but even if
this is the last you hear of them
they're worth knowing about creative
ideas like this and programs like niacc
are shaping the future of space
exploration one mission concept at a
time every amazing mission you know
about today started off as an idea like
this so whether these missions get fully
developed or just inspire future
concepts we're glad people are thinking
about them developing a new mission
obviously takes a lot of engineering
talent but it also takes soft skills you
might not think of things like how to
communicate well and honestly those
skills apply to any field not just space
exploration if you want to work on your
soft skills you can check out crash
course business soft skills a show
produced by complexly this series is
hosted by evelyn from the internet and
over the course of 17 episodes she'll
teach you how to tackle the job search
and use skills you already have to stand
out in the workplace check out the first
video about the key to all things
business building trust the link is in
the description
[Music]