For years – 74.52 years , to be precise – the thought of interplanetary traveller visiting us in flying saucer has been a mainstay of science fiction and confederacy possibility . But here ’s the twist : what ifwewere the flying dish all along ?
Enter MIT ’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics , where engineers have been work on something flat out of anH. G. Wells novel : a disk - shaped lunar scouter that can levitate across the Moon using tiny ionic thruster powered by the Moon ’s natural force field .
“ We think of using this like theHayabusa missionsthat were set up by the Nipponese space agency,”explainedOliver Jia - Richards , lead author of afeasibility studyon the project published back in March . “ That spacecraft operated around a small asteroid and deployed small rovers to its surface . Similarly , we think a future mission could post out small levitate rovers to explore the surface of the Moon and other asteroids . ”
It ’s not as farfetched as it sound . Unlike Earth , and even ( albeit to amuch lesser extentin some cases ) theother planetsin our Solar System , the Moon and asteroid havebasically zeroatmosphere . That can take to some pretty unusual effects : their aerofoil , basically raw to radiation from the Sun and surround plasma , build up electric fields that repel objects away from the reason . On the Moon , it ’s brawny enough to levitate dust more than a meter high-pitched .
Of course , space vehicle are often quite a turn gravid than dust particles – but that ’s no job for a team of MIT and NASA - coach engineers . The bird of passage is made with Mylar : a eccentric of polyester film lever in the aerospace industry for its high tensile strength , constancy , and electric insulation . In an airless , barren environment , Mylar would naturally match the armorial bearing follow from the ground and , like the magnets we experimented with in 8th - grade aperient , the two surfaces would therefore repel each other , thus levitating the rover .
“ This kind of ionic design practice very little power to beget a lot of potential difference , ” explained study co - author Paolo Lozano . “ The power want is so small , you could do this almost for free . ”
That lifelike repulsion may be fine for small asteroids , but the Moon comes with one extra split : its size . While it ’s relatively flyspeck from our vantage point – the Moon is , after all , not even as broad as Australia – our nearest neighbor in the Nox sky is easy monumental enough to pull a little roamer into its gravitative champaign .
At first , the team modeled the wanderer as being equipped with thrusters that pumped out negatively charge ion – in effect making it positively charge , like the lunar Earth’s surface . In hypothesis , this should make the two bodies drive each other , and push the bird of passage away from the priming , but the squad presently found that the force yield was not enough .
“ Then we thought , what if we transpose our own charge to the airfoil to supplement its natural charge ? ” Jia - Richards said . In other words , the squad was hint , what if the rover could send out positivistic ion beams onto the Moon , promote its lifelike electric field ? Could that be enough to get the rover off the basis ?
A short numerical good example later , and the squad were convinced : in rationale , it could work . With extra thrusters to magnify the Moon ’s force against it , a low , rough 0.9 - kg ( 2 - Ezra Loomis Pound ) rover would be able to brood about a centimeter ( 0.4 inches ) off the lunar surface – opening new corridors into extraterrestrial exploration .
“ With a levitating wanderer , you do n’t have to worry about wheel or moving parts , ” Lozano says . “ An asteroid ’s terrain could be whole odd , and as long as you had a controlled mechanism to keep your roamer float , then you could go over very bumpy , undiscovered terrain , without having to dodge the asteroid physically . ”
The respectable part ? This sci - fi - sounding idea has already been shown to work in the genuine world . The researchers have been experiment with a small hexagonal test vehicle – about the size of your palm , and weighing just 60 grams ( 2.1 oz. ) – equipped with five ion pusher : one bespeak upwards , the residue down . In a specialized setup plan to counteract the Earth ’s atmospheric conditions and gravitative force , the team were able to hover the hexangular test bird of passage with results that twin their predictions precisely .
And while lift a 2 - pound rover 1 centimetre off the floor may not voice like much of an accomplishment , Jia - Richards explained that this is just the beginning .
“ In principle , with good clay sculpture , we could levitate to much higher heights , ” he said – and while we know he wasprobablyjust verbalise about uncrewed exploration , we ca n’t help but hope this meansfuture Moon baseswill come with their own fleet of flying cars , à laThe Jetsons . Hooba - dooba - dooba !
