Braun Seeks Disruptive Space Technologies

NASA Chief Technologist Bobby Braun, 44, one of the youngest members of the NASA leadership team and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden's principal adviser for agency wide technology issues, commented on a $5 billion Space Technology Program slated to start next fiscal year that would develop transformative new space technologies, reports Mercury News from Silicon Valley, California.

One example of that kind of "disruptive" research into futuristic technologies noted by Bruan is a study Congress funded this month and in which NASA Ames will participate. In that joint effort with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, the Pentagon's research and development office, Braun said NASA will explore a technology called "power beam propulsion" that could direct a beam of energy at a spacecraft to power its flight, either to blast off from earth or to accelerate through space, the media reported Dr. Bruan as suggesting.

Braun's goal is to create new technologies that could leapfrog anything NASA can do now and help transport astronauts to any extraterrestrial destination. Alan Boyle's MSNBC Cosmic Log provides more details of Bruan's remarks.