Arx Pax, the company responsible for making Marty McFly's hoverboard a reality, announced Wednesday that it has entered a Space Act Agreement with NASA to develop new applications for it's magnetic levitation technology.
"It's a big milestone for Arx Pax," says co-founder and CEO Greg Henderson, according to Fortune. "It goes way beyond the hoverboard. Hover engines have applications in space, in transportation, in industrial automation, in structural isolation. NASA, by their nature, has to innovate to solve the problems they solve. And they get it."
Arx Pax's Magnetic Field Architecture, or MFA, will be the primary focus of the two's partnership. The MFA generates controllable directional thrust between an engine and a passive conductive surface such as copper or aluminum.
"And conveniently," Henderson says, "spaceships and satellites typically have aluminum skins."
This technology could be used to build micro-satellite capture devices that can manipulate and couple satellites from a distance, almost like the tractor beams used on "Star Trek." Coincidentally, that's precisely what the company has in mind, according to an email sent to Fox News.
"Likely uses for this technology include manipulating various types of objects at a distance without touching them or colliding with them," Henderson explained. "One example could be moving an object, like a satellite, or holding it stationary without physical contact."
MFA technology has other applications outside of space. Arx Pax has already been looking into using the technology to protect people and structures during earthquakes and other natural disasters, reported I4U News. If successful, the technology would be able to "decouple" a building from the earth.
