NASA bets on metal hydrogen and cosmic gas stations

Metallic hydrogen fuel and gas stations floating in space sound impossibly futuristic, but NASA is betting on them one day transforming space flight.

On Monday, the agency announced that 30 ambitious space technologies will receive $100,000 each in seed money under its Innovative Advanced Concepts programme (NIAC).

These include exploring the possibility of crushing gaseous hydrogen into a solid metal that could be a highly efficient rocket fuel. Metallic hydrogen may exist deep within Jupiter, but if it could be manufactured in the lab, it would pack several times more energy per kilogram than the best rocket fuels in use today.

Another idea with NIAC funding is an electric force field to protect astronauts from deadly space radiation.

These projects will help take NASA "back to its roots, with a focus on advanced technology and innovation", says the agency's chief technologist Bobby Braun.

As part of a separate project, NASA is paying four companies a total of $2.4 million to come up with designs for an orbiting gas station. The ability to fuel up in space would enable relatively small rockets to send astronauts to the moon or beyond.

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