© 2004 Robert A. Freitas Jr. and Ralph C. Merkle. All Rights Reserved.

Robert A. Freitas Jr., Ralph C. Merkle, Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines, Landes Bioscience, Georgetown, TX, 2004.

3.25 NIAC Phase I Studies on Self-Replicating Systems (2002-2004)

The NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) is a research institute within the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) [1294]. USRA is a private nonprofit corporation, charged with the “development of knowledge associated with space science and technology” under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences, that includes 84 universities and research institutes in the United States, two member institutions in Canada, two in England, and two in Israel. NIAC’s charter is to focus on grand, revolutionary, longer-term concepts for architectures and systems potentially useful in space science and technology.

In recent years, four NIAC grants, summarized below, have been awarded to researchers who are studying kinematic self-replicating machines. As these words are written, the latter three of the four studies are still in progress.

Last updated on 1 August 2005