Agency To Invest In Technology Companies

Is NASA going private? Maybe not completely, but according to the UK's Independent Online, it has started its own venture capital fund to invest in technology businesses.

The agency says it's looking for outside help to meet President Bush's plan for a manned Mars mission by the year 2020. Calling it Red Planet Capital, NASA has already put $75 million in the fund.

Graham Burnette, one of the Red Planet Capital's three fund managers, told the Independent, "A manned mission to Mars presents problems that go far beyond what has been done before, even by going to the moon and back. For example, in the Apollo missions, the imperative with a sick crew member was to stabilize him and get him home, but that is not an option when a Mars mission could take a year or two years."

Mars mission directors say they need help with communications, advanced materials, and energy. Specifically, directors hope the fund will help them find technologies to make space suits that recycle water, and intelligent robots.

Joining Burnette in managing the fund is Peter Banks and Jacques Vallee. The three have worked together since 1988. They say Companies looking for inventors might expect $3-5 million if selected by the fund, "with initial startup funding as low as $250,000, and indirect access to some of NASA's expertise."

Although Red Planet Capital is not-for-profit, NASA says the autonomous systems, light-weight materials and miniature sensors it hopes to fund will have direct applications here on earth too.

Although NASA hired three managers to oversee the fun, the agency itself will provide those managers with strategic direction and technical input... oh, and $75 million!

FMI: www.nasa.gov