NASA iTech and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) are collaborating on a unique iTech competition to identify transformational energy technologies that can improve energy generation, storage and distribution to the benefit of both space exploration and life on Earth.

For the 2018 iTech Energy Cycle, NASA and ARPA-E are seeking to identify the nation’s top entrepreneurs and researchers to present their innovative technologies to address energy-specific challenges. A few examples of technology sub-themes that NASA believes have the potential to improve future space power systems include, but are not limited to:

• Fuel Cells and Regenerative Fuel Cells
• High-energy Density Batteries and Supercapacitors
• Solar Power Systems
• Small Fission Power Systems
• Innovative Power Management and Distribution (including smart grids and wireless power transfer)
• X-Factor Energy: innovations so compelling NASA and ARPA-E should know about them

"Although this is not a typical Cycle, NASA iTech has proven to be a successful public-private partnership model for stimulating the development of groundbreaking technologies, without the government being the early investor,” said Kira Blackwell, NASA iTech program executive in the Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Previous entrants to NASA iTech have already raised more than $50 million in private investment funds."