Solar Surfing Also, two projects were selected for Phase III: William Whittaker: Robotic Technologies Enabling the Exploration of Lunar Pits Joel Sercel: Mini Bee Prototype to Demonstrate the Apis Mission Architecture and Optical Mining Technology 2020 NIAC Project Selections The sixteen projects selected for Phase I were: Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay: LCRT - Lunar Crater Radio Telescope on the Far-Side of the Moon John Christian: StarNAV: An Architecture for Autonomous Spacecraft Navigation by the Relativistic Perturbation of Starlight Artur Davoyan: Extreme Metamaterial Solar Sails for Breakthrough Space Exploration Caroline Genzale: Fueling a Human Mission to Mars Davide Guzzetti: Flat Fabrication of Progressively Self-Assembling Space Systems Benjamin Hockman: Gravity Poppers: Hopping Probes for the Interior Mapping of Small Solar System Bodies Steven Howe: Pulsed Plasma Rocket: Shielded, Fast Transits for Humans to Mars Troy Howe: High Irradiance Peltier Operated Tungsten Exo-Reflector (HI-POWER) Gerald Jackson: Deceleration of Interstellar Spacecraft Utilizing Antimatter Matthew Kuhns: Instant Landing Pads for Artemis Lunar Missions Richard Linares: Dynamic Orbital Slingshot for Rendezvous with Interstellar Objects Philip Metzger: Aqua Factorem: Ultra Low-Energy Lunar Water Extraction Robert Moses: Advanced Aerocapture System for Enabling Faster-Larger Planetary Science & Human Exploration Missions Eldar Noe Dobrea: Heat Exchange-Driven Aircraft for Low Altitude and Surface Exploration of Venus Robert Romanofsky: Magneto-Inductive Communications for Ocean Worlds Lynn Rothschild: An Astropharmacy In addition, six projects were selected for continuation into Phase II: David Akin: Innovative Offloading of Astronauts for More Effective Exploration Javid Bayandor: Lightweight Multifunctional Planetary Probe for Extreme Environment Exploration and Locomotion Troy Howe: SPEAR Probe - An Ultra Lightweight Nuclear Electric Propulsion Probe for Deep Space Exploration Masahiro Ono: Enceladus Vent Explorer Joel Sercel: Lunar Polar Propellant Mining Outpost (LPMO): A Breakthrough for Lunar Exploration & Industry Nan Yu: Gravity Observation and Dark Energy Detection Explorer in the Solar System Also, one project was selected for continuation into Phase III: Slava Turyshev: Direct Multipixel Imaging and Spectroscopy of an Exoplanet with a Solar Gravitational Lens Mission See also Advanced Propulsion Physics Laboratory Advanced Concepts Team References External links NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts site at USRA List of NIAC studies funded 1998-2007 NASA Innovative Advanced concepts site at the Office of the Chief Technologist at NASA List of NIAC studies funded 2011-present NASA programs Futures studies organizations