Американские инженеры предложили построить маглев на Луне

Watch Ethan W. Schaler from Jet Propulsion Laboratory discussing two NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase I studies – FLOAT and SWIM – to investigate novel solutions for the unique environmental, operational, and design constraints imposed on two types of robots operating on the Moon and Ocean Worlds. For FLOAT – Flexible Levitation On A Track – we’ll consider the challenges of building the first lunar railway system, to provide reliable, autonomous, and efficient payload transport on the Moon in support of ISRU (in-situ resource utilization) and ECO (excavation, construction, and outfitting) activities, with the capacity to move more than 100,000 kg of regolith multiple kilometers per day while consuming less than 10 kW of power and operating under harsh lunar conditions imposed by abrasive dust, thermal deltas, and vacuum. Our proposed platform uses dozens to thousands of passively-levitating magnetic robots that are controllably propelled over a flexible film track. For SWIM – Sensing With Independent Micro-swimmers – we’ll study the idea of using dozens of miniature underwater robots, each approximately the size of a cell phone, to characterize the physical / chemical properties of ice-ocean interfaces on Ocean Worlds in search of signs of extant life. Ocean Worlds – especially Enceladus, Europa and Titan – are some of the most likely locations beyond Earth to harbor life, but have liquid water oceans hidden beneath kilometers of icy crust, with unknown currents, high pressures, and limited ability to send data back to Earth.