Flight demonstrations may be pricey, but when industry partners are willing to pay for them they can help speed new NASA technology from the lab into real-life use, experts said in a report issued on Wednesday.
The report scolds NASA's reliance on 40-year-old technology and says the agency needs to focus on 16 areas that include better rockets, better ways to propel spacecraft in space, safer ways to land, and new ways to feed and protect astronauts on long missions.
"To send humans to the moon, Mars, and other destinations beyond low Earth orbit, new technologies are needed to mitigate the effects of space radiation ... advance the state of the art in environmental control and life support systems so that they are highly reliable ... and provide advanced fail-safe mobile pressure suits, lightweight rovers ... and other mechanical systems that can operate in dusty, reduced-gravity environments," stated the report from the National Research Council.
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