Lunar Railway: NASA's Innovative Payload Transportation Concept

NASA has been working towards establishing a permanent human presence on the moon since the late 1950s, and their upcoming Artemis program aims to explore the lunar surface and establish a base for manned lunar landings.

As part of NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts program, six cutting-edge concepts have been selected for Phase 2 funding. One of these projects, known as Flexible Levitation in Orbit (FLOAT), proposes the construction of a lunar train for transporting payloads.

Unlike traditional railways on Earth, this transportation network will not rely on fixed tracks. Instead, experts plan to deploy long, flexible orbits directly on the lunar surface. This innovative design allows for faster construction time, and in the event of a changing lunar base location, the track can be rolled up and relocated.

The transportation will be carried out by a series of unpowered magnetic robots suspended on the track's surface. Electromagnetic thrust generated by the track itself will propel these robots to their destinations. This concept is reminiscent of maglev trains on Earth, where the track provides the power instead of the vehicle.

According to Ethan Schaler, a robotics engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a durable and long-lasting robotic transportation system will become an integral part of the daily operations of a sustainable lunar base by the 2030s. Each robot will be capable of transporting goods at a speed of 1.61 kilometers per hour. With no wheels or legs, these hovercars will avoid track wear caused by the dusty lunar environment.