NASA is likely to close its Institute for Advanced Concepts, which funds research into way-out spaceflight and aeronautics. The move is a result of the budget problems that NASA are facing as they struggle to retire the shuttle and get a replacement ready in time. It’s already likely that there will be a gap in launch capability of at least a year.

The institute receives only $4 million per year from NASA, whose annual budget is $17 billion. That budget has recently produced the conceptual development of spacecraft that could surf the solar system on magnetic fields, motion-sensitive spacesuits that could generate power and tiny, spherical robots that could explore Mars.

The move in another sad chapter in the NASA story. The commercial space industry is now, in my opinion, a more interesting arena and is far more likely to produce something exciting in the next few years.

For example, a rocket developed by Elon Musk, the PayPal founder, blasted into space on Tuesday. The 21-metre (68-foot) booster rocket called Falcon 1(shown above) lifted off from a US military missile test-range in the Marshall Islands and arrived in space soon after. There were problems five minutes into the flight with the booster’s second-stage engine, but the mission was still a success. The booster carried a pair of engineering experiments from DARPA, who funded the flight. Space Exploration Technologies, also called SpaceX, is offering launches at about $7 million. SpaceX’s debut mission a year ago ended shortly after lift-off when a corroded nut cracked, triggering a disastrous fuel leak and fire.

Matthew Sparkes is a contributing author for MoT.

NASA is likely to close its Institute for Advanced Concepts, which funds research into way-out spaceflight and aeronautics. The move is a result of the budget problems that NASA are facing as they struggle to retire the shuttle and get a replacement ready in time. It’s already likely that there will be a gap in launch capability of at least a year.

The institute receives only $4 million per year from NASA, whose annual budget is $17 billion. That budget has recently produced the conceptual development of spacecraft that could surf the solar system on magnetic fields, motion-sensitive spacesuits that could generate power and tiny, spherical robots that could explore Mars.

The move in another sad chapter in the NASA story. The commercial space industry is now, in my opinion, a more interesting arena and is far more likely to produce something exciting in the next few years.

For example, a rocket developed by Elon Musk, the PayPal founder, blasted into space on Tuesday. The 21-metre (68-foot) booster rocket called Falcon 1(shown above) lifted off from a US military missile test-range in the Marshall Islands and arrived in space soon after. There were problems five minutes into the flight with the booster’s second-stage engine, but the mission was still a success. The booster carried a pair of engineering experiments from DARPA, who funded the flight. Space Exploration Technologies, also called SpaceX, is offering launches at about $7 million. SpaceX’s debut mission a year ago ended shortly after lift-off when a corroded nut cracked, triggering a disastrous fuel leak and fire.

Matthew Sparkes is a contributing author for MoT.