"Does a levitating robot train on the moon sound far-fetched?" asks LiveScience. "NASA doesn't seem to think so, as the agency has just greenlit further funding for a study looking into the concept." The project, called "Flexible Levitation on a Track" (FLOAT), has been moved to phase two of NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts program (NIAC) , which aims to develop "science fiction-like" projects for future space exploration. The FLOAT project could result in materials being transported across the moon's surface as soon as the 2030s, according to the agency... According to NASA's initial design, FLOAT will consist of magnetic robots levitating over a three-layer film track to reduce abrasion from dust on the lunar surface. Carts will be mounted on these robots and will move at roughly 1 mph (1.61 km/h). They could transport roughly 100 tons (90 metric tons) of material a day to and from NASA's future lunar base. "A durable, long-life robotic transport system will be critical to the daily operations of a sustainable lunar base in the 2030's," according to NASA's blog post, arguing it could be used to Transport moon materials mined to produce on-site resources like water, liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen, or construction materials Transport payloads around the lunar base and to and from landing zones or other outposts Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader AmiMoJo for sharing the article.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

If successful, the Chang’e-6 mission will be the first in history to return a sample from a part of the moon that we never get to see from Earth.

© Hector Retamal/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The moon will drift far enough from Earth that it no longer fully obstructs the sun. But predicting when this will happen poses numerous challenges.

© Richie Pope

The agency’s future moon buggies will reach speeds of 9.3 miles per hour and will be capable of self-driving.

© NASA TV