One of the great challenges of the astronauts who will occupy the first permanent base on the Moon is that of transporting loco resources. And NASA aims to revolutionize the rules of the game with a novel solution, a railway network that will use levitation. Other Science Report news: ● FLUTE Liquid Space Telescope Could Revolutionize Space Exploration ● NASA Asks SpaceX to Design Martian Satellite Network
railway railwaysPhoto: COVER Images/Zuma Press/ Profimedia Images
The first railways on the moon could become a reality in about ten years
Building a permanent base on the surface of the Moon is a remarkable achievement, but one that comes with numerous logistical challenges. For example, that of transporting resources from one point to another. In principle, rovers could be used, it would not be something new for mankind, but they will not solve the long-term problems.
Therefore, NASA is open to any kind of ideas that could provide a solution in this regard. A first option, about which I have already reported, would be that offered by DARPA, an agency within the US Department of Defense, which selected the company Northrop Grumman, a giant of the American arms industry, to build the railways and all other aspects that they belong to the lunar infrastructure.
Meanwhile, a new proposal, and one with a high chance of taking precedence, is the one called FLOAT, a project developed by specialists from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. What does FLOAT mean? Well, FLOAT stands for Flexible Levitation On A Track, and as the name suggests, it’s about a railway network that will use levitation to transport various materials.
As much as the idea may seem rather sci-fi, such technology already exists. It is used by high-speed trains and relies on levitation induced by diamagnetic materials, materials that are repelled by a magnetic field.
The most interesting part about the runways that will be placed on the Moon (if NASA will agree to develop the project) is that they are not fixed and do not require a long preparation of the land on which they will be located.. They are simply deployed directly on regolith, with minimal prior preparation, and material-carrying robots can levitate on these tracks between different points.
Another positive, at least the project phase, is that the robots will not be equipped with wheels, tracks or other means of locomotion that would come into contact with the regolith. Thus, the malfunctions inherent in prolonged contact with it are avoided.
Specialists from NASA JPL claim that such “railways” will be made of graphite that allows diamagnetic levitation. At the same time, a flexible circuit will generate an electromagnetic force. There is another third layer of the track, but it is optional. Basically, it acts like a giant solar panel and can capture solar energy. Thus, when operational, the entire system will not require an external power source.
The robots that will operate on these tracks, say the authors of the project, can be of different sizes and can carry loads of about 30 kilograms, at a speed of about 5m/second, over distances of several kilometers. It may not seem like much, but in this way loads totaling up to 100,000 kilograms can be transported, and that too in a single day.
Apparently NASA officials were pleased with the project, as they just gave it $600,000 in funding to enter the second design phase. A stage in which both the track and the related robots will be tested in conditions similar to those on the Moon.
Ultimately, if all tests pass and the project proves feasible, the FLOAT system could become part of the lunar infrastructure sometime in the middle of the next decade.
FLUTE liquid space telescope could revolutionize space exploration
Normally, when you think of a telescope, whether ground-based or space-based, you think of a system based on lenses, mirrors, etc. An extremely complex and expensive one. For example, to launch and place in space a space telescope like the James Webb telescope, which, by the way, has a diameter of 6.5 meters, it must be folded to fit in the rocket that carries it, then deployed in outer space. Which is by no means an easy mission.
It is the same on the ground, where, despite the fact that telescopes are being built ever larger and more powerful, their design and, above all, their construction, are extremely expensive and difficult. But there is a project that could change all these aspects. FLUTE is called and has just received NASA approval to enter the advanced stages of development.
FLUTE (Fluidic Telescope), as he shows in the sketch phase, should have a diameter of about 50 meters. Currently, with the technology we have, we cannot afford to send a telescope larger than ten meters in diameter into space. And even if we did, it wouldn’t be economically viable.
But FLUTE aims to revolutionize the rules of the game and comes with a concept that is as simple as it is ingenious and, very importantly, cheap compared to current space telescopes. What is so different about him? First of all, it is an atypical telescope. A liquid one. And it all started from observing the properties of liquids in microgravity conditions.
There, liquids tend not to dissipate, due to surface tension (the property of liquids to take a geometric shape in the absence of external forces). In outer space, away from Earth’s gravitational force, surface tension is even more effective, and water (or other liquid) will take the most effective form in the cosmos, the sphere.
Second, the telescope is based on another natural principle, adhesion. And that makes liquids stick to a hard surface. Starting from these two principles, if the liquid can be made to point inwards rather than outwards, and if the liquid is sufficiently reflective, it can be turned into a telescope.
Specialists from NASA’s Ames Research Center have already tested the principle of the liquid telescope on the International Space Station, in microgravity conditions, but also in the laboratory, in zero gravity conditions. And the results are more than promising. As proof that NASA has chosen to fund the project for the second design phase.
A bonus offered by such a telescope would also be its ability to repair itself. For example, if a micrometeorite were to break through the liquid surface, it would simply return to its original shape. An aspect that, in the case of a classic telescope, would require expensive repairs.
According to NASA, if FLUTE passes all the necessary tests, it could become a reality in 15-20 years.
NASA asks SpaceX to design a Martian satellite network
The idea is not a new one. Ever since he started promoting the idea of a Martian colony, Elon Musk has mentioned every time the urgent need for a high-performance communications network that would allow the connection of the two planets, Earth and Mars, at this level. In fact, the American multi-billionaire with South African origins argued, it is crucial that a network of satellites be placed around the Red Planet, to facilitate communication with Earth for future colonists, but also for future Mars missions.
Pressured by recent budget cuts, NASA is looking more recently to private companies for such technologies. And recently, both SpaceX and eight other private companies (Redwire Space, Firefly Aerospace, Impuse Space, Albedo Space, Blue Origin, United Launch Alliance, Lockheed Martin and Astrobiotic) responded to the US space agency’s call to present projects in this sense.
The date on which the winners will be announced will be in August of this year, and the companies that will present sufficiently convincing studies will receive funding ranging from 200,000 to 300,000 dollars to develop the projects.
SpaceX, with the experience it already has, seems to be the top favorite, and Elon Musk could take advantage of NASA’s need to modernize its communications network with Mars, one that relies, in part, on satellites several decades old.
Another goal of NASA is to adapt quickly to the new budget restrictions so that it does not have to abandon or indefinitely postpone the mission by which it aimed to bring, for the first time, samples of Martian soil to Earth. Not coincidentally, all these projects that NASA requested could play an extremely important role in the revised strategy to recover samples from Mars. And, very importantly, to do it before China.
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