NASA has introduced its new Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program that will integrate emerging technologies to enable faster trips to Mars and robotic exploration of the ocean, the administration announced on Wednesday.

“NIAC is an innovative program that encourages researchers – and the agency – to think outside of the box for solutions that could overcome challenges facing future science and exploration missions,” said Walt Engelund, deputy associate administrator for programs within NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD).

NASA’s program, which invests in early-stage technology ideas from the administration, industry and academic researchers across the country, has selected 23 potentially revolutionary concepts with a total award value of $7 million. Among the selections are 16 new concepts and seven studies that previously received at least one NIAC award.

A mission concept to image Earth-like planets outside of the solar system was selected for a Phase III study. Slava Turyshev, a researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, will receive a $2 million grant to further mature the concept and related technologies.

Turyshev has outlined the feasibility of a solar gravity lens to enable enhanced viewing of planets orbiting other stars, known as exoplanets, during his Phase I and Phase II NIAC research. He also developed a mission architecture that uses multiple small spacecraft and solar sail technology to propel them to their target destination 50 billion miles from Earth.

He has uploaded to the preprint archive arXiv in February 2020, which has suggested the phenomenon could allow us to get strikingly detailed images of distant Earth-like planets.

“In the strong interference region of the SGL, this light is greatly amplified, forming the Einstein ring around the Sun, representing a distorted image of the extended source,” Turyshev noted in his research.

Turyshev stated that NASA researchers have to carry a “meter-class telescope with a solar coronagraph” to an extraordinary distance from the Sun. For perspective, Voyager I is currently only about 123 astronomical units away from Earth has reached the edges of the solar system in 2012, the furthest we’ve ever sent a man-made object.

To keep costs low and feasibility as high as possible, Turyshev suggests that a “swarm architecture for smallsats” with solar sails for power could fly out, along the SGL, to observe “multiple planets/moons of an exosolar system” at the same time.

The selected Phase I and II studies will explore the overall viability of a technology and develop them into mission concepts. Areas researchers will study include mapping asteroids and other small bodies in the solar system with hopping probes, making on-demand pharmaceuticals in space, and extracting water on the Moon.

Several of the concepts could inform capabilities relevant to NASA’s Artemis program, which will land the first woman and next man on the Moon in 2024 and establish a sustainable presence on and around the Moon by 2028.

“This is only the third study selected for Phase III funding in the history of the program,” said NIAC Program Executive Jason Derleth. “We’re excited by its potential to bring us closer to imaging an exoplanet in detail, at a resolution comparable to the well-known Apollo 8 Earthrise photo.”

NASA selected the proposals through a peer-review process that evaluates innovation and technical viability. All projects are still in the early stages of development, with most requiring a decade or more of technology maturation, and are not official NASA missions.

NIAC will support visionary research ideas through multiple progressive phases of study. Phase I studies will receive $125,000 and are nine-month efforts. Eligible recipients of Phase I awards can submit proposals for a follow-on Phase II study.

Selected Phase II researchers will receive $500,000 grants to further develop their concepts for up to two years. Phase III is designed to strategically transition NIAC concepts with the highest potential impact for NASA other government agencies or commercial partners. Phase III researchers will receive $2 million grants to develop and mature their mission concept over two years.

“We’re excited about the new concepts and to see how additional time and resources advances the research selected for follow-on Phase II and III studies,” added Engelund.

Jacobs has been recognized by Environmental Business International (EBI) with six business achievement awards for leadership and outstanding performance in its corporate, environmental and climate change work in 2019, the company announced on Wednesday.

“As we face some of the world’s toughest challenges, including clean water, affordable energy, connectivity, climate change, environmental pollution and economic growth, our people are working to find better ways to create an enduring legacy,” said Jacobs chair and CEO Steve Demetriou.

The first award Jacobs received, inclusion and diversity, has recognized the company’s continued efforts to develop “Conscious Inclusion” training for all employees, broadening ethnic and gender diversity in its executive team and adding an eighth global employee network, called “ACE” (Access. Connect. Empower.).

The efforts have celebrated and raised awareness of those with physical, cognitive and mobility impairments and broadened LGBTQI+ recognition. In Jan. 2020, Jacobs joined The Valuable 500, an organization that seeks to ensure disability inclusion is on business leadership agendas, to Jacobs to  encourage corporate diversity, including disability, in the workplace.

“As a member of The Valuable 500, Jacobs is committed to the journey of becoming a more accessible and inclusive company, leveraging our Inclusion & Diversity platform to encompass disability in the workplace on a global scale, while empowering employees to bring their full, authentic selves to work,” said Steve Demetriou, Jacobs chair and CEO.

The company also received an industry leadership award for its hydrogen economy. Jacobs developed a sustainable hydrogen supply chain model tailored for Australia’s emerging hydrogen economy. Jacobs’ global thought leaders developed a white paper that outlined a sustainable vision for hydrogen production in Australia in May 2019.

The third award recognized Jacobs’ social contributions. The company worked with Home Leone’s anti-poverty program in the West Africa country of Sierra Leone, which is developing a new community and relocating more than 2,000 people from across Freetown’s 62 slums to new, secure, low-cost homes.

Jacobs’ received an award on technology merit, recognizing the company’s development of the Replica digital twin software platform that has produced simulations of physical infrastructure and processes in the digital realm.

Jacobs has integrated Replica into its projects and clients to minimize energy and chemical usage on water and industrial water-related processes, develop alternative control strategies against wet weather events and create digital twins of infrastructure.

Jacobs has implemented a new practice area using environmental DNA (eDNA) and metagenomics sequencing technology for the ecosystem and biological monitoring, providing safe, efficient and unbiased biodiversity surveys in aquatic and terrestrial systems that are quicker, less expensive and more reliable than traditional survey approaches. Because of the company’s innovation, Jacobs received a “new practice award”

Jacobs has been recognized for its ultra-low emission zone. The company prepared an impact assessment for the world’s first Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) in London, England, which requires that all cars (other than taxis), motorcycles, vans, minibusses, buses, coaches and heavy-goods vehicles meet emissions standards or pay a charge.

“I am also very proud of the significant strides the company has made with inclusion and diversity – which is the central element of the Jacobs culture – continually empowering our employees to find strength in our differences,” added Demetriou.

About Jacobs

At Jacobs, we’re challenging today to reinvent tomorrow by solving the world’s most critical problems for thriving cities, resilient environments, mission-critical outcomes, operational advancement, scientific discovery and cutting-edge manufacturing, turning abstract ideas into realities that transform the world for good.

With $13 billion in revenue and a talent force of more than 55,000, Jacobs provides a full spectrum of professional services including consulting, technical, scientific and project delivery for the government and private sector.

Dun & Bradstreet has launched a new data platform for government agencies to inform mission-critical response and relief efforts across state and local communities, the company announced on Wednesday.

“Our team of data scientists are lending their skills and analytics capabilities to help organizations across public and private sectors as they face the economic downturn resulting from this global pandemic,” said Stephen C. Daffron, president of Dun & Bradstreet. “It our duty as a trusted advisor to find ways to use our insights and mission-critical data and analytics to help businesses manage risk and turn uncertainty of the moment into confidence in the future.”

Dun & Bradstreet has launched a new platform for data decisioning. The company introduced its COVID-19 Business Impact Research Platform, free of cost, to provide data, analytics and insights to help government agencies and officials determine the full impact of the virus.

The solution will plan risk mitigation and recovery initiatives, prioritize emergency management and economic support for the industries, businesses and communities with the most pressing needs and determine workforce disruptions and supply chain risks.

The platform has been integrated on Dun & Bradstreet’s Data Cloud, and will contain comprehensive global information on more than 355 million businesses. The Platform will be  available to U.S. federal, state, and local government agencies, members of Congress and its staff.

For small businesses, Dun & Bradstreet will offer its solutions and tools to help support small businesses, enterprises and organizations at large and to meet the needs of both the public and private sectors. The company will continue to offer complimentary access to its resources.

The company will also offer complimentary health scans to analyze an organization’s customer portfolio, sales pipeline and supply chain to determine areas of risk and opportunity.

“With 178 years of experience and the ability to understand the needs of the public and private sectors, our role as a trusted advisor becomes ever more important in times of crisis as we work in partnership with government agencies, businesses and communities,” said Daffron. “Now is the time for us to do our part to work together to support our communities and help them plan their recovery efforts in order to embark on a prosperous future.”

About Dun & Bradstreet

Dun & Bradstreet, a leading global provider of business decisioning data and analytics, enables companies around the world to improve their business performance. Dun & Bradstreet’s Data Cloud fuels solutions and delivers insights that empower customers to accelerate revenue, lower cost, mitigate risk, and transform their businesses. Since 1841, companies of every size have relied on Dun & Bradstreet to help them manage risk and reveal opportunity.