NASA Includes ISAM Amongst 2025 NIAC Winners
NASA announced their 2025 NIAC (NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts) Selections last week which include a number of In-Space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (ISAM) projects.
The NIAC program is designed to develop concepts to “transform future missions for the benefit of all” and are awarded to fund early-stage technology concept studies for future consideration that would yield potential future commercialization.
Funded projects relating to ISAM include:
Construction Assembly Destination
ThinkOrbital (a COSMIC Member), per their submission, will “will perform a study to identify the challenges associated with fabricating a shipyard in space using technologies and assets available today. Building on their ISAM&C technology and their expertise in the field, ThinkOrbital will develop CONOPS, preliminary designs, and a cost analysis of deploying a shipyard to low Earth orbit.”
Enabling Construction of Monolithic Habitats in Low-Gravity
Skyeports LLC, per their submission, will study “employing techniques used in large-scale glass manufacturing” with the hope that their “innovative approach could stimulate economic growth by fostering advancements in glass manufacturing and construction technologies, potentially leading to spinoffs with applications beyond aerospace.”
Dynamically Stable Large Space Structures via Architected Metamaterials
NASA Ames Research Center, per their submission, will “design a starshade structure that utilizes novel dissipative and phononic metamaterials to design ultra-stable occulter structures at a fraction of the mass of traditional deployable designs” with the goal of “enabling lower mass starshades with lower fuel requirements, this technology can transform our ability to discover exoplanets.”
By enabling projects like these with a focus on sustainable construction in space, the demand signal for future ISAM capabilities being scaled is as clear as ever.
You can read more about the NIAC program on NASA’s website here.