NASA is nurturing inventors with revolutionary scientific concepts. NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts 'NIAC' allocates funds for paradigm changing innovations that may be priceless in decades.

For instance, NIAC has funded research into an Earth Cooling Space Sunshade.

The proposal calls for cooling the Earth with a giant sun shield if global warming gets out of control. University of Arizona astronomer Roger Angel's plan is to launch trillions of tiny spacecraft to form a cloud about a million miles from Earth, in L-1 orbit. The cloud, which would have a diameter about half the size of the Earth, would reduce the amount of sunlight by 2 percent, or enough to counteract the doubling of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere.

The two-foot spacecraft would be made of transparent film, and weigh about the same as a butterfly.

This global warming solution would cost a few trillion dollars and take 25 years to deploy, and could come into play if global warming ramps up and becomes irreversible.