An artist ’s concept of refreshing approach proposed by a 2024 NIAC Phase II awardee for possible future mission render lunar aerofoil with planet Earth on the horizon . NASA / Ethan Schaler
NASA is explore the estimation of building a railway on the lunar control surface that uses levitating robots to provide “ reliable , autonomous , and effective payload transport on the moonshine . ”
The space federal agency said the Flexible Levitation on a Track ( FLOAT ) organisation would play a primal role in the day-to-day operations of an astronaut - inhabited lunar base , which NASA is go for to build in the 2030s as part of the Artemis program .
An artist’s concept of novel approach proposed by a 2024 NIAC Phase II awardee for possible future missions depicting lunar surface with planet Earth on the horizon.NASA/Ethan Schaler
FLOAT would be used to move regolith mined for grammatical construction or to transport payloads around the lunar base , as well as to and from landing zone or other locations like exploration sites .
Ina billet on NASA ’s website , Ethan Schaler of the space representation ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said the FLOAT organisation would deploy “ unpowered magnetic robots that levitate over a 3 - layer flexible film track : a graphite level enables automaton to passively float over tracks using diamagnetic levitation , a flex - circuit layer generates electromagnetic thrust to controllably propel automaton along track , and an optional thin - photographic film solar panel bed generate force for the groundwork when in sun . ”
Individual FLOAT robots would be capable of transmit payloads of unlike shapes and sizes at speeds of up to o.5 measure per second , and a large - ordered series system would be able to move up to 100,000 kilo of stuff “ multiple km per day . ”
Schaler explained that the FLOAT robots would have no moving parts and would hover over the track to minimize lunar rubble detrition that could get damage to the system over time . As a result , less maintenance would be required compare to , say , lunar robots with wheels , leg , or data track .
The tracks for FLOAT would arrive on the moon pluck up before being unroll directly onto the lunar Earth’s surface , doing away with the motivation for challenging and fourth dimension - consuming construction workplace by astronaut .
The fascinating estimation still has some direction to go before it can become a reality . The next step is to build a series of subscale automaton and track prototype for testing in a lunar - parallel environment so that the FLOAT plan can be fine-tune and ameliorate . Systems for fabricate the necessary ironware at ordered series will also have to be developed .
NASA is shoot for to send astronauts back to the moonlight in the Artemis III missioncurrently set for 2026 , and after that , it wants to build a moonbase where astronauts can live and work in a similar way of life to how they do on the International Space Station today .
