Space

NASA Funds Futuristic Space Pharmacy

NASA starts funding a pharmacy in space.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program has chosen six research teams to receive Phase II funds.

These initiatives includes allowance for astronauts to manufacture their own medications in orbit and a plan to eliminate asteroids that pose a hazard to Earth, according to a press release by the U.S. Space Agency. The ideas made from NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program “will help empower researchers to usher in new technologies that could revolutionize exploration in the heavens and improve daily life here on Earth.”

Fourteen people received $175,000 awards as part of the program’s initial phase, which was announced in January. Only six were chosen for Phase II, and they will each get up to $600,000 over the course of two years to continue developing their concepts.

NASA’s interest in defending the earth against dangers, discovering more about earth, and keeping astronauts safe is represented in Phase II.

A commercial radioisotope technology dubbed EmberCore is being proposed by Ultra Secure Nuclear Corporation to power a radioisotope-electric-propulsion spaceship design.

Ultra Secure Nuclear Corporation intends to create a radioisotope-electric spacecraft that can travel at crazy speeds of between 50 and 100 km/s. This spacecraft’s architecture might make it possible to carry out solar system-wide science missions.

https://gizmodo.com/nasa-advanced-concepts-asteroid-defense-space-pharmacy-1850313767

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/nasa-funds-space-pharmacy-asteroid-defense-projects

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41526-019-0075-2

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9815863/

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https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2020_Phase_I_Phase_II/Astropharmacy/