NASA has announced its 2026 Phase I NIAC selections, and they're as delightfully unhinged as ever. Among the 17 awarded projects is Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay's "Dimming the Sun (DimSun)" - which proposes using a controllable dust cloud to reduce solar insolation. Because why not try to turn down the thermostat on the entire planet?

Other highlights include David Bugby's "CANVAS" - a combinatory architecture for neomobility on Venus (because Venus is famously hospitable), and Artur Davoyan's "Coilable Stacked Solar Sails" for very high delta-V missions. Because regular solar sails just aren't fast enough.

A.C. Charania's "EARENDIL" aims to keep astronauts warm and powered during icy, dark EVA scenarios using radioisotopes - essentially a space-age hot water bottle. Meanwhile, Jeff Nosanov's "OBLIVIAN" will observe black hole light via intensity correlation, which is either brilliant or a cry for help.

Other projects include quantum wind lidar for planetary science, plasmon-enhanced radioisotope thermophotovoltaic power for interstellar missions, and a plan to map alien continents using optical VLBI. Yes, mapping exoplanets like a cosmic cartographer.

NASA's NIAC program is famous for funding high-risk, high-reward ideas that may never fly - but if they do, they'll be spectacular.