On a July afternoon, a man – named Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) – walked upon the Moon in 1969…

Human beings have walked on the Moon, sent spacecraft there, and brought soil and rocks from the Earth’s only natural satellite. There are pieces of information about human achievements on the Moon in the media almost every day. The distance between the Earth and the Moon is 384,400km. However, there is no end to human interest in the Moon that is a quarter of the size of the Earth. Hence, scientists have been conducting lunar research and expeditions for quite some time.

The US was the first country to send astronauts to the Moon. Now, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the independent agency of the US Federal Government responsible for the civil space programme, and aeronautics and space research, is planning to send astronauts to the Moon again in the coming days. So far, scientists have made great progress in lunar research by sending spacecraft to the Moon so far.

The Chang’e 6 of China is the world’s first attempt to retrieve substances from the Moon’s far side that is not visible from the Earth. The Asian Giant launched the first-of-its-kind Moon Sample Return Mission on May 3, 2024 from Hainan Province. The Chang’e 6 is scheduled to land on the Moon in the first half of this year. It shall return to the Earth only after collecting up to 2kg of stones and soil, packed in a vacuumed metal container inside the ascender, from the Moon.

Meanwhile, NASA has announced a completely new plan that has stunned the scientific community. The US space research agency has revealed that it would lay railway tracks and construct a railway station on the Moon to run trains! However, this particular railway project would be a bit different from that of Earth. Although the train, which would run on the lunar surface, would carry passengers, they would not be human beings. NASA would lay the railway tracks on the Moon solely for research purposes as the lunar train would carry various payloads. During their lunar missions, different countries send payloads from the Earth to the Moon in order to carry out research works through them. The lunar train would transport those payloads from one place to another.

According to NASA, this particular project is called FLOAT (Flexible Levitation on a Track). The US agency would use the magnetic levitation method while laying the flexible three-layer film tracks on the lunar surface. In other words, payload transportation would be arranged on the Moon by using magnetic levitation methods. In a statement, NASA has mentioned that the magnetic levitation system would have some unpowered magnetic robots that would gently float over the Moon’s graphite surface. The agency has explained that the robots, to be used in the FLOAT, would have no separate moving components, as they would just float over the flexible three-layer film tracks. Interestingly, the robots would remove the dust from the surface of the Moon!

Furthermore, no one would travel to the Moon in order to lay the railway tracks there. Instead, NASA would develop the entire system on the Earth before sending it to the Moon. The railway system would directly land on the lunar surface from a spacecraft. NASA scientists have claimed that the proposed lunar railway system could transport payloads of various sizes at the speed of 0.5mt per second. According to scientists, payloads can travel several kilometres per day. They have also claimed that FLOAT would work automatically on the dusty and rough lunar surface.

NASA has stated that it would design the railway system first before carrying out experiments. Initially, the entire process would be demonstrated on an analogue testbed. Currently, research is underway on the impact of lunar environment and weather on the proposed railway system. Scientists are also considering how long the railway system can remain active on the Moon. In other words, the US agency shall take time to implement this extraordinary project!

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das