The tractor beam technology so often depicted in science-fiction movies could soon become a reality thanks to a new partnership between NASA and Arx Pax, a California-based firm that has developed a working hoverboard that functions using magnetic field technology.

The collaboration, the company revealed in a statement, looks to use the same Arx Pax Magnetic Field Architecture (MFA) technology featured in their hoverboards in a proposed micro-satellite capture device that could manipulate and couple cubesats from a distance by creating a magnetic tether between itself and the target object.

Arx Pax officials explained that the capture device they were working on with NASA would draw in and repel satellites at the same time, meaning that it will be able to hold a cubesat at a distance and keep it from moving closer or further away. By doing so, the device can capture and collect a micro-satellite or another object without making physical contact with them.

According to Space.com, the same technology that enables the company’s hoverboards to create and manipulate magnetic fields, thus floating over conductive surfaces, can theoretically be used to manipulate cubesats. Unfortunately, this “space-based hover engine” could not draw in any far off spacecraft like the tractor beams from Star Trek.

What is this witchcraft?

So how does the MFA technology work? According to Ars Pax, it is essentially “the design of more useful magnetic fields.” By combining relatively weak fields in a specific way, it generates a primary electrical field which induces electrical currents in a conductive surface.

These currents create a second magnetic field that repels the first, essentially creating opposing electromagnets in the surface material that provide lift. In addition, objects using MFA are able to move in multiple directions, brake, and rotate without making contact with the surface.

Arx Pax founder Greg Henderson told The Verge that the system has “some limitations,” but “all satellites and spacecraft are made of aluminum, which works just fine.” Also, given the size of the average cubesat and the limitations of the hover engine, the site suggested that the unit would be small, but effective, since small pushes are more effective in the vacuum of space.

The Verge said that the prototype would be developed over the next couple of years. In addition, Henderson said his company expected to be granted an official patent for their hover engine technology in the near future, and that he hoped it would also be used for its original purpose – to help protect buildings against floods and earthquakes.

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Feature Image: Arx Pax

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