A project that foresees the construction of railways on the Moon by 2030 has moved into the second phase of the Advanced Innovative Concepts (Niac) program at NASA (United States Space Agency).
Six proposals were selected for this stage and each group will receive around R$3 million to continue developing the research for the next two years. At the end of this period, the approved projects could become a space mission.
Float (Flexible Levitation on a Track) was developed by Ethan Schaler, from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He envisions building a track for magnetic robots to float on. In the project, cars would not touch the tracks, preventing the dissipation of lunar dust.
The machines would pass through a track made of three layers: one of graphite, used to make the robots float due to magnetization; one with an electrical circuit to generate the magnetic impulse necessary for transport; and one with solar panels, to generate energy for the trails.
The installation of the track would be simplified, only needing to be rolled out on the ground, with the possibility of retracting it and changing the transport location.
The other projects encompass ideas such as: a fluid-based telescope; a pulsed plasma rocket; the use of thermoradiative cells to generate energy outside the planet; a low-frequency radio telescope; and the application of sensors based on quantum dots.
“Our Niac colleagues never fail to surprise and inspire, and this class definitely gives NASA a lot to ponder about what’s possible in the future,” said John Nelson, Niac program executive at the agency’s headquarters in Washington.
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