NASA supports project to build autonomous railways on the Moon

NASA selected the FLOAT project, in which researchers suggest building the first railroad system on the Moon to transport cargo

NASA has just revealed the conceptual studies selected for its Innovative Advanced Concepts Program (NIAC), which include ideas that are beyond futuristic. One of these proposals is the FLOAT project, which proposes a levitation railway system on the surface of the Moon.

The idea is that the FLOAT rails (acronym for “flexible levitation on rails”, in free translation) are positioned directly in the lunar regolith, which means that little prior preparation would be required. Afterwards, robots would levitate along the tracks; As they would have no wheels or legs, the lunar relief would not be a problem for them.

The rails, in turn, would be flexible structures with a layer of graphite, allowing diamagnetic levitation while a circuit would generate electromagnetic impulse. This last feature is optional, but as it would be a solar panel, it would eliminate the need for external energy to power the system.

The FLOAT authors suggest that this would be an autonomous, reliable and efficient means of transporting payloads. According to them, FLOAT could carry cargo from spacecraft landing zones to lunar bases, also offering the transport of regolith. According to the team, 100 tons of material could be transported each day.

It may seem like the proposal came out of a science fiction film, but know that FLOAT is just one of the concepts selected to advance to the next phase. The others include new propulsion systems, which would be used to reduce travel time to Mars, and even a liquid space telescope — conceptual, of course.

Now that the FLOAT project has advanced to the next stage, its researchers will work to design and produce a scaled-down version of the system. If all goes well, the device could be tested in a simulation of the lunar environment, showing the team how the characteristics of the environment affect the tracks and robots.

Source: NASA

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