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Space
Space
Science
Josh Dinner

Launching 10,000 tiny 'femtosats' to Saturn? NASA funds 18 futuristic spaceflight ideas

NASA Saturn Niac
A collage of artist concepts highlighting the novel approaches proposed by the 2026 NIAC awardees.

NASA is giving a financial boost to nearly 20 technology investigations to help fuel the incubation of tomorrow's spaceflight research capabilities.

The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program has selected 18 projects for this year's Phase I awards, which will each split a total of $3.2 million in development funding. NIAC is designed to bolster technology breakthroughs that NASA could use on future space missions.

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