A flying saucer-style rover that can float across the surface of the Moon and other airless planetary surfaces has been imagined by researchers.
The electric field built up by the sun and its surrounding plasma creates a charge that can levitate more than a meter.
Mylar is a material that holds the same charge when hit by the Sun's rays. ion beams would be used to counteract gravity by boosting the natural surface charge.
How the rover might look. (MIT)
"With a levitating rover, you don't have to worry about wheels or moving parts," says an engineer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
If you had a mechanism to keep your rover floating, you could go over rough terrain without having to dodge the asteroid.
The ion sources are small nozzles that have been used to propel satellites through space. When hit with an electric charge, molten salt shoots out of the nozzles as a beam.
The charge is transferred to the surface below. The idea could work, and would provide enough thrust to get the gliding rover off the ground.
The team was able to get a small, palm-sized vehicle weighing about 60 grams to levitate in a lab experiment using ionic-liquid ion sources. The planetary body's size would affect the amount of force required.
The test is being done. (MIT)
"This kind of ionic design uses very little power to generate a lot of voltage." You could do this for free because the power is so small.
It's important to pack as light as possible because heavier loads need more fuel and cost more money to launch. The proposed probe would have a lot of power of its own.
The current analysis shows that levitation is possible. The researchers say that more modeling is needed in order to get the rover up to a respectable height.
This kind of rover can be used to explore large asteroids like Psyche, which can be seen up close with a vehicle that can draw some of its power from natural electric fields.
The Hayabusa missions were launched by the Japanese space agency, and Oliver Jia-Richards thinks of them when he thinks of this.
There was a small asteroid and a spacecraft that operated around it. We think a future mission could send small hovering rovers to explore the surface of the Moon and other asteroids.
The research was published in a journal.
