The American space agency NASA is planning to build a railway system on the surface of the moon. The system, called Flexible Levitation on a Track (FLOAT), would be used to transport astronauts, equipment, and materials across the lunar surface. NASA says the railway system will be critical to the daily operations of future moon missions and could also be used to support the construction of a long-term moon base.
FLOAT is based on magnetic levitation technology, which is commonly used in high-speed rail development. The system consists of flat, magnetic panels that float, or levitate, over a flat rail line, or track. The robots have no moving parts and are unpowered. They are pushed along the track by electromagnetic energy.
NASA says the simple design of the carrier robots should help them last a long time and require little ongoing care. The system’s tracks can be placed directly on the lunar surface, avoiding the need to build a complex, permanent structure. They could also be moved around to change the transportation path.
A smaller version of the FLOAT system will permit robots to transport loads up to 30 kilograms at speeds of about 0.5 meters per second, the agency said. A larger system could also be built, to enable load transports involving up to 100,000 kilograms of regolith. Such a system could permit trips of “multiple kilometers per day,” NASA explained.
The agency is currently developing and testing different parts of the FLOAT system. FLOAT is one in a series of NASA development projects that recently received additional financial assistance to keep running. The projects are part of a NASA program called Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC). Each of the projects received “up to $600,000 to continue working over the next two years” to progress further. FLOAT and the other projects already passed NIAC’s first development phase and are entering the second. If the efforts continue to show promise, they will be able to enter phase III, which provides additional funding and support from NASA. After that, the projects will be considered for a future space mission.
