NASA Funds 22 Futuristic Ideas for Space Exploration
By Mike Wall, SPACE.com on April 12, 2017
NASA has funded 22 technology concepts that could spur giant leaps in space science and exploration down the road.
The potentially transformative space-tech ideas — which received money from the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program—include creating a linear (as opposed to rotation-based) artificial-gravity system; bioengineering microbes to prepare Martian soil for farming; and harnessing temporary variations in objects' masses to power interstellar spacecraft, without the need for any propellant.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasa-funds-22-futuristic-ideas-for-space-exploration/