Architect-founded technology firm Arx Pax, who brought you the Hendo Hoverboard, and NASA, who recently brought you photos of Pluto, announced today that they've teamed up in a Space Act Agreement to create micro-satellite capture devices that create magnetic tethers between satellites.
The technology, which is based on Arx Pax's patented electromagnetic energy transmitting Magnetic Field Architecture (MFA), would allow the proposed devices to manipulate and couple satellites from a distance. This effect could be roughly compared to the "tractor beam" used on the TV show "Star Trek" (except for small satellites only, and with a much simpler initiator than the NCC 1701).
Arx Pax and NASA are keen to design a device that can attract one object to another remotely, which would allow the initiator to keep an object in its field stationary: once engaged in the device's field, the satellite would be unable to either move from or toward the device. According to Arx Pax, this "will enable the capability to capture and possibly manipulate micro-satellites or other objects without making physical contact with them. While [the device] will lead to new possibilities in terms of space exploration research, its long-term potential beyond that is far reaching."
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We spoke with Greg Henderson of Arx Pax on Archinect Sessions Episode #4. Much of the commentary around the announcement of the Hendo Hoverboard was that it was silly, or not really a true hoverboard, or that it was a colossal waste of time...lots of criticism.
So I love that now we have an example of how pursuing an idea, no matter how ridiculous it may seem, can lead to really amazing offshoots. Congratulations to Arx Pax!
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