Recently, NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program allocated funding to six visionary teams to explore the feasibility of their unconventional ideas. While projects like fluidic telescopes, pulsed plasma rockets, and quantum-dot solar sails are revolutionary in their own right, one proposal distinctly stands out: the lunar magnetic levitation train designed by Ethan Schaler and his team. Their aim is to create the first lunar railway system, leveraging their Flexible Levitation on a Track (FLOAT) technology.
“Our objective is to showcase FLOAT’s potential as a new transportation system—similar to a railway or conveyor belt—optimized for the lunar environment,” Schaler said in an interview with PopSci.
For any long-term lunar base to be viable, it will require a consistent supply of essential materials such as water, liquid hydrogen, and construction components. While these could be delivered by resupply rockets, sourcing them directly from the lunar surface would be more cost-effective and logistically feasible. Transporting cargo over vast distances using lunar RVs is another option, but an automated system could provide a safer and more reliable alternative.
Schaler’s team believes their FLOAT concept could be the key to efficient lunar transport. The current design envisions unpowered magnetic robots hovering over a flexible trilayer film track. This track would include a graphite layer for diamagnetic levitation, a flex-circuit layer for controlled electromagnetic thrust, and an optional solar panel coating to passively generate energy.
“FLOAT robots have no moving parts and levitate over the track to minimize lunar dust abrasion, unlike traditional lunar robots with wheels, legs, or tracks,” explains the project’s description, noting that the tracks can be unrolled directly onto the lunar surface, eliminating the need for extensive on-site construction.
NIAC’s financial support will fund a forthcoming Phase II conceptual study, following the initial Phase I FLOAT pitch. Over the next two years, researchers will investigate how lunar hazards such as radiation and extreme temperatures might impact the rail system. They also plan to build a small prototype with miniature robots and tracks and test it in various environmental chambers to simulate thermal variations and reduced gravity. These tests will help them determine necessary site preparations, such as leveling regolith and removing large rocks.
Another target is to scale up the magnetic robot prototypes. During Phase I, the team developed 10-square-cm robots that significantly surpassed the existing technology. By the end of Phase II, the goal is to create 100-square-cm robots.
“These prototypes will still be smaller than the eventual meter-scale robots, but they represent substantial progress,” Schaler said, noting that each scale-up will bring new engineering challenges.
In addition to physical prototypes, the team will conduct comprehensive simulations using computer software to test the FLOAT system in various locations around the lunar South Pole — NASA’s chosen site for its Artemis missions.
Although FLOAT is still in its conceptual stages and has yet to be approved for actual NASA missions, Schaler is optimistic about the future.
“I am hopeful that the FLOAT technology will eventually travel to the Moon, space, or even other planets,” he stated.
