NASA Gives Green Light To New Projects: Cryogenic Sleep Chambers, Growable Space Habitat And More

Self-assembling space habitats and a deep sleep chamber for long-duration space missions may probably sound like ideas coming from a sci-fi movie, but these are just some of the future projects NASA is currently developing.

The proposed projects are part of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC). The space agency rewards funding to plans that could potentially revolutionize aerospace missions, present new technologies, and greatly boost new methods of aerospace system development, motherboard.com reported.

NASA has just announced that eight concepts were given a go to proceed to the next phase of development. NIAC's phase II gives $500,000 for two years of study so that further tests can be made to analyze the technologies. This year's selections include a special habitat designed to encourage cryosleep on long-duration missions, a robotic space habitat which is able to build itself and grow in lunar orbit (making it a perfect orbital outpost), and much more. The projects are still in their infancy, and there is an off chance that they fail in the next 10 years, but these proposals are worth the time.

The cryogenic chambers were specifically designed for humans to use to travel to Mars. Scientists estimate the travel time to be about nine month, which coincidentally the same number of month for pregnancy. It would require more supplies to get the crews there and back, so they thought that if astronauts could sleep during the whole trip, a lot of cargo weight and unnecessary time will be saved. This was proposed by Atlanta-based aerospace company SpaceWorks suggests in its research called "Torpor Inducing Transfer Habitat For Human Stasis To Mars."

According to Tech Times, astronauts will be placed in a condition of advanced hypothermia, with their core body temperatures lowered by about negative 12 degrees Celsius (10 degrees Fahrenheit) in order to lower their metabolic rate. The sleeping astronauts will be fed intravenously.

Another proposed plan is the growing space habitat. There isn't enough detail available on this project, but according to creator Robert Skelton it relies on a concept called tensegrity, which is an adaptable, flexible, and malleable structure comprised of continuous sticks and strings. Skelton says this is based on the molecular structure of the fiber of a spider and can shape-shift by changing the string tension.

These are just two of the eight approved proposals, and the remaining proposal are as interesting as a page from a science-fiction novel. The complete list of chosen projects can be viewed on NASA's website.