 Hey, what's up everybody? So NASA wants to expand into the solar system, and especially with humans, they want to go around the moon, to a near-Earth asteroid, and to Mars. NASA is building the space launch system and a Ryan capsule to enable deep space exploration, but for some of the other key technologies, NASA's turning to the commercial sector for new innovative technology. And that's what we're going to be talking about for today's space pod from May 28th, 2015. NASA has a program to facilitate this process called Next Step, and it recently awarded 12 partnerships on advanced concept studies in three main areas, including propulsion, habitation, and small satellites. For propulsion, NASA is looking at high-powered electric propulsion in the 300 kilowatt range, such as the Vazemir engine being developed by the Ad Astra rocket company. They're going to use their Next Step award to develop and test an advanced version of their Vazemir engine, which they've been working on for a couple of years now, and it's going to electrically charge plasma in order to get its thrust. Aeroget Rocketdyne is going to use their award on the development of a power processing unit that will be able to get them in the 250 kilowatt range for their nested hull thruster. And also a company named MSNW-LLC of Redmond, Washington is teaming up with the University of Washington to build an ion thruster that is capable somewhere between the 100 to 300 kilowatt range and can use traditional propellants as well as propellants that are manufactured from resources available during deep space missions, like the asteroid retrieval mission. How exactly they're going to do that isn't clear yet, but it is an interesting concept. Regarding habitation for the astronauts on deep space missions, the Orion capsule, although cramped, is okay for missions lasting a few days or even weeks, but for missions lasting three months or more, the astronauts are just simply going to need more space and supplies. So the seven concepts looking to provide that space and supplies are coming from Bigelow Aerospace using their BA-330 module. Their concept would illustrate how their habitats could be used to support long duration missions. They've been working on their inflatable habitats for a long time, and an experimental module is sitting at Cape Canaveral right now and is going to be launched later this year to be tested out at the International Space Station. One of the other habitat concepts comes from Boeing, which would be using a low cost habitat based off of the modules they've built for the International Space Station. Boeing did produce the Unity module, the Destiny laboratory, and the Quest airlock, so they do have some experience in manufacturing these types of modules. LittleATK also got a partnership looking at using their Cygnus cargo spacecraft. They're planning on building an extended Cygnus spacecraft, as well as under this proposal a docking node that would be able to have a modular configuration of different Cygnus spacecraft and similar sized logistic modules. Lockheed Martin also has a habitat proposal in partnership with TailsLeniusSpace. TailsLeniusSpace has built several modules for the International Space Station, including the European Space Agency's Columbus module, the Multi-Purpose Logistics module, including the Permanent Multi-Purpose module, Leonardo, which it just so happens was just moved from the Earth-facing port of the Unity module to the Forward-facing port of the Tranquility module. This was done to make room for the new docking adapters for the commercial spacecraft that hopefully will soon be servicing the Space Station. Some of the other habitat-related proposals come from Dianetics, which is working on an advanced CO2 scrubber that not only would be more reliable and require less maintenance, but would also be modular and would be able to be used in multiple systems, not just habitats but also spacesuits and possibly even compact emergency life support modules. Also a company called Hamilton Sunstream Space Systems International, out of Windsor-Lox, Connecticut, is working on larger modular advanced life support systems that would require less integration and maximize commonality between different components. Also another really cool idea comes from a company called Orbitech, out of Madison, Wisconsin, which is working on what they're calling a hybrid life support system. Essentially, they're wanting to grow plants and microorganisms directly into the wall of one of these habitats and essentially have a natural life support system, recycling carbon dioxide and producing oxygen and all sorts of other good gases and chemicals that the astronauts breathe. This idea has a lot of applications and could go beyond a hybrid life support system. The other area of the Next Step program is their small satellites. In this case, CubeSats, they're looking at two so far that would potentially launch on the first Space Launch System and Orion capsule test flight. This mission would be flying around the moon, similar to an Apollo 8 mission profile, and they would have these CubeSats as secondary payloads that would be able to be deployed and look at the moon. The first CubeSat is also a proposal by Lockheed Martin called Skyfire, which would be getting infrared sensor data from the lunar surface, and this CubeSat would actually be a six-unit CubeSat. The other CubeSat is being developed by Moorhead State University of Moorhead, Kentucky, and is in partnership with the Boosec Company, which I've never heard of, NASA Goddard, and the Catholic University of America. Anyway, this CubeSat is designed to search for water ice and other resources in an orbit of around 62 miles above the surface of the moon. This would also be a six-unit CubeSat they're calling IceCube, and results from these studies and hardware developments would determine the role for international partner involvement in some of these future missions of going around the moon, going to a near-Earth asteroid, possibly even going back to the surface of the moon, but definitely to go to Mars. So I think this program is a really great idea, and although these are just concept studies right now, it could lead to a lot of really cool things in the future. And these are at least the sort of technologies that NASA is seriously looking at to accomplish their stated goal so far. I know there's a lot more that NASA wants to do, but there's politics involved, but I do not want to get into that in this video right now. So I think I'm going to leave it at that for now. Coming up, I'm going to be talking about in future space pods, I've gotten some requests to talk about not only the United Arab Emirates Space Agency, but also the Brazilian Space Agency. So we're going to talk about those in the future space pod, but there's also been some really cool space news stuff that's been happening. And if I don't see you guys on the live show, then we're going to have to just try to talk about some of all this really cool stuff that's been happening in the future pod next week. Thank you for watching this video. My name is Michael Clark. Please leave a comment about all these different proposals and which ones you guys think are not only really cool, but have a high likelihood of success. And let me know if you want me to go into any more detail about any of these particular proposals. If you'd like to help us to bring you space news like this, then please visit patreon.com slash space pod to find out more information about how you can crowdfund this show. Thank you so much to everyone who's contributed already and literally every single penny helps. Thank you so much. Until the next time, I see you guys keep moving onwards and upwards.