Join me on a journey to the 2024 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts or Niac Symposium,

this week on planetary radio.

I'm Sarah Al Ahmed of the Planetary Society with more of the human adventure across our

solar system and beyond. Space agencies are well known for creativity, but the NASA Innovative Advanced

Concept Program takes it to a totally different level. It funds imaginative and

sometimes quirky ideas that could one day change the face of space exploration.

I had the pleasure of returning to the symposium to host the webcast this year

and over the next two weeks I'll share some of my interviews with the people I met at the event.

We'll kick things off with an

introduction from Pem Melroy, NASA's deputy administrator, followed by Thomas

Swick, chief technologist of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who will discuss

some of NASA's most impactful innovations.

Then we'll learn more about two Nyack phase one projects that could help us study distant

planets or reach them ourselves.

Marshall Eubanks from Space Initiatives Incorporated and his colleagues will introduce us to their concept for a swarm of laser sailing Pico spacecraft that could travel interstellar distances.

Then Ryan Springer from Fauna Bio Incorporated

joins us to discuss how hibernation

could help humans reach other worlds.

We'll close out with our two scientist Bruce Betts as he joins me for What's Up and a new

random space fact.

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