NASA has recently announced that they will be partnering with Arx Pax with the goal to apply the latter's technology in controlling tiny, versatile satellites without actually touching them. The collaboration is already set into motion, and a working prototype will be made in the coming years
'Back to the Future' is considered as one of the best movies during its time. Not only was Robert Zemeckis' Sci-Fi film able to predict, or perhaps command several key pieces of technology that people are using today, but it also opened up several concepts and ideas that have inspired people to invent things.
Wirelessly controlled video games, three-dimensional movies, digital tablets and auto lacing sneakers are decent examples of the trope. And the latest addition to it goes in the form of a hoverboard which is set to be released this October.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) decides to take the idea of hoverboards further by developing a real-life hoverboard to control tiny, versatile satellites called 'cubesats' without actually coming in contact with them. It has also teamed up with Arx Pax, a California-based company responsible for the Hendo Hoverboard, to achieve this. Hendo Hoverboards uses a technology called Magnetic Field Architecture (MFA) technology to hover over conductive surfaces. Theoretically, the same principle can be applied to move and control cubesats.
"Arx Pax and NASA will work together to design a device with the ability to attract one object to another from a distance. The device will draw as well as repel satellites at the same time, meaning it will hold a satellite at a distance and won't allow it to move away or toward the capture device. This will enable the capability to capture and possibly manipulate micro-satellites or other objects without making physical contact with them," the representatives of Arx Pax explained in a press release.
However, a space-base hover engine is not capable of drawing spacecraft in from distant places, much like a tractor beam from popular Sci-Fi television show Star Trek can do.
The Verge reports that both Arx Pax and NASA are planning to develop a cubesat-moving device prototype over the course of the coming years.
