NASA Selects 20 Innovation Fund Projects

WASHINGTON, July 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Innovative Partnerships
Program, working with the Office of the Chief Engineer at NASA Headquarters,
has selected 20 projects for the 2009 NASA Innovation Fund. The fund was
established to advance work from NASA innovators on novel technologies and
concepts that have the potential to revolutionize the way NASA performs its
missions such as enabling new capabilities in space flight, science,
aeronautics or exploration. Projects that also offer potential solutions to
other national and global challenges are of particular interest.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO )

The selected projects include a technique for returning small payloads from
the space station, a new approach to robotic space exploration, several new
concepts for generating solar power, improved instruments for studying the
environment, the use of microwave energy for sealing wounds, and
nano-materials for scientific instruments and energy storage.

The selected project teams are led by NASA scientists and engineers and
include partners from five universities, two small businesses, Wright
Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio and the National Institute for Aerospace in
Hampton, Va.

More than 230 proposals were submitted this year. Each project is funded for a
maximum of $50,000, with work to be completed by the end of September.

For a complete list of the selected projects, visit:
http://tinyurl.com/ms3wtv

For more information about the NASA Innovation Fund and the Innovative
Partnerships Program, visit:
http://www.ipp.nasa.gov

SOURCE NASA

Sonja Alexander of NASA Headquarters, Washington, +1-202-358-1761,
sonja.r.alexander@nasa.gov