NASA backs 18 radical spaceflight ideas, from a fleet of femtosats to lunar cave explorers

NASA's NIAC program selected 18 Phase I feasibility studies, each funded up to $175,000 for nine months, to explore transformative space technologies for future missions. Concepts include the Lunar Underground eXplorer drones mapping lunar lava tubes, a plan to deploy 10,000 tiny femtosats to Saturn's rings, and a dynamic hierarchical nulling interferometer to image exoplanet surfaces; these are seed ideas, not missions, intended to mature technologies for Artemis-era exploration.