NASA wants to develop a reliable, autonomous and efficient payload transportation network so that the Moon can soon receive its first railway system.
Between missions such as NASA’s Moon to Mars program and Robotic Lunar Surface Operations 2 (RLSO2), a long-life robotic transportation system will be critical to the day-to-day operations of an enduring lunar base in the 2030s.
FLOAT — Flexible Levitation on a Track — The system will be developed to transport payloads around the lunar base, to landing zones or other outposts, and to move natural resources mined on the moon.
How does it work?
The FLOAT system uses passive magnetic robots that ride over a 3-layer flexible film track: a graphite layer enables the robots to passively float over the tracks using diamagnetic levitation, a flex-circuit layer generates electromagnetic propulsion. An optional thin-film solar panel stack generates power for the base when exposed to sunlight.
Unlike conventional roads, railways or cableways – FLOAT tracks will be driven directly into the lunar regolith to avoid major on-site construction.
A large-scale FLOAT system would be capable of moving 1,00,000 kilograms of regolith/payloads several kilometers per day.
Work on the project will begin by designing, manufacturing, and testing a series of subscale robot/track prototypes, culminating in a lunar-analog test area.
The impact of environmental factors such as temperature and radiation on system performance and longevity will be studied and a technology roadmap will be defined to ensure mature manufacturing capabilities for critical hardware.
FLOAT was first proposed in 2021 under NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program.
