NASA Loads 14 Companies With $370M For 'Tipping Point' Technologies

NASA has announced more than a third of a billion dollars worth of "Tipping Point" contracts awarded to over a dozen companies pursuing potentially transformative space technologies. The projects range from in-space testing of cryogenic tech to a 4G LTE network for the Moon. From a report: The space agency is almost always accepting applications for at least one of its many grant and contract programs, and Tipping Point is directly aimed at commercial space capabilities that need a bit of a boost. According to the program description, "a technology is considered at a tipping point if an investment in a demonstration will significantly mature the technology, increase the likelihood of infusion into a commercial space application, and bring the technology to market for both government and commercial applications."

geeks in space

[codeButcher]

I wonder if the /. founders ever applied for a grant for the Geeks in Space [archive.org] programme... Oh well, I guess that is too late now. Times have changed.

Don't need 4G on the moon

[olsmeister]

I mean it's the moon, you only need 1/6th G.

Words matter.

[Gravis Zero]

Not trying to be pendant but how information is presented is important. The headline should be:

NASA Invests $370M In 14 Companies To Develop 'Tipping Point' Technologies

When you say, "Loads" it sounds like they are just throwing money at people. These are carefully made decisions.

Re:

[rtb61]

The idea should not be tipping point technologies but being smarter about access to space.

There are three basis missions. Getting to earth orbit from the earth surface and back. Nothing else, but that shifting mass from the surface to orbit. The best means by which to achieve that with tonnage.

Second mission, from Earth orbit to Lunar Orbit, that is the place most want to go initially the moon as in a permanent base. So how to build a Lunar Ferry. Obviously you do not want to luanch it from the earth, so

I'd like to research space viruses

[OrangeTide]

In case a contagious virus comes down. I'd like to research how we might organize some practical public health policy to mitigate the dangers and economic disruption a pandemic could cause. It might be as simple as a brief period of mandatory mask wearing by the public, and over quickly. I can't imagine anyone would not wear a mask if the government asked them to, it would be a small inconvenience to protect those around them. It's not like people would storm state capital buildings with guns over emergency restrictions, that only happens in movies.

Re:

[IdanceNmyCar]

If you read this comment from the perspective of anywhere except America, the sarcasm can be completely lost which is why those "/s" tags can be so important for context of any readers in the distant future. For instance, in China, there is no resistance to wearing masks when requested by the government . Likewise only in America are guns so readily accessible by imbeciles that they can storm government buildings over said reasonable restrictions. Perspective is a funny thing... of which most people have

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re: Spoken like a good little communist

[IdanceNmyCar]

What sources show there is a resurgence in China. All the cases currently trace to foreign nations who are in isolation. There are a handful of cases in differentareas going unreported.

Compare that to America where there is no second wave because the first wave never stoppeh and estimates of unreported cases are often in the 2x to 10x the confirmed cases.

People who talk like you are either blantantly ignorant and/oa abundantly hateful. As an America living in China, my countries failures have never been mad

Only LTE on the moon?

[tlhIngan]

Seems outdated with all this 5G stuff going around. And I hear the 5G towers burn so much more prettily on the moon when set alight by the lunatics (invoke both meanings). After all, who wouldn't want to be firs to say the luna-coronavirus is also spread by 5G?

Then again, I bet the roaming charges will be a rather out of this world.

language matters

[cas2000]

Does NASA end up with an ownership stake in any of these technologies? Do any related patents become at least partially owned by the public?

No? Then it's not an investment, it's an expense. It's a subsidy. It's corporate welfare.

Call it what it is.

Re:

[rtb61]

Better going into space than into war but the USA seems in the most idiotic fashion determined to destroy it advantage in space by filling it full of the debris of war in long term orbit around the plan, to deny humanity access to space for centuries.