NASA taps hoverboard company Arx Pax to build space ‘tractor beam’

Fox News ^ | James Rogers

[BenLurkin]

The company that made Marty McFly’s hoverboard a reality is reaching for the stars, or more precisely, satellites.

Los Gatos, Calif.-based Arx Pax has entered into a Space Act Agreement with NASA, the company announced Wednesday. The partnership involves Arx Pax’s Magnetic Field Architecture (MFA) technology, which will be used to build micro-satellite capture devices that can manipulate and couple satellites from a distance.

The technology inevitably conjures up images of the tractor beam used on “Star Trek.”

“Likely uses for this technology include manipulating various types of objects at a distance without touching them or colliding with them,” explained Arx Pax CEO Greg Henderson, in an email to FoxNews.com. “One example could be moving an object, like a satellite, or holding it stationary without physical contact.”

However, specific details of the technology’s roadmap have not yet been revealed. “The collaboration is evolving and the project is a work in process,” explained Henderson, in the email. “We will share more information as we hit specific joint development milestones.”

[ClearCase_guy]

Sometimes I think we are living out Philip K. Dick's novel "The Zap Gun". The book features a Cold War arms race in which no one actually builds any functional weapons. Both sides simply build a lot of "weapons" to intimidate the other side, and then try to turn the "weapons" into something useful for the consumer market.

Space Shuttles, F-35, Cold Fusion, Hover Boards, Tractor Beams ... we seem to spend a lot of resources on stuff which probably just isn't going to function in anything like its intended manner. Wake me up when I can actually buy a flying car.

[a fool in paradise]

You won’t be permitted to own flying car (even private land car ownership is frowned upon).

Would you settle for a seat on a flying high speed rail?

[ClearCase_guy]

OK.

But only if the high-speed rail is never actually completed, and only if the intended destination of the high-speed rail is nowhere that anyone actually wants to go.

[UCANSEE2]

Which model would you prefer ?

[UCANSEE2]

[Steely Tom]

You may be allowed to own one, but you won’t be able to drive it. That will be done by government-owned computers.

You’ll just tell it where you want to go and when you want to get there.

[a fool in paradise]

First train is slated to go to D-troit.

[Secret Agent Man]

by the time we have flying cars you will never be able to actually fly one.’ govt regs and insurance will make sure you dont.

[backwoods-engineer]

What a puff piece.

[Flick Lives]

Well said. Articles such as this are total frauds full of hype. I don’t know if the writers even believe it or they just think they’re being cute. Does NASA believe it? Do they think they’re fooling the public? Hover boards? Tractor beams? They don’t even have an operational manned launch vehicle.

[17th Miss Regt]

“One example could be moving an object, like a satellite, or holding it stationary without physical contact.”

If a satellite is in orbit and you perturb the orbit you may cause it to re-enter the atmosphere and burn up. Voila! That low orbit satellite is not taking pics anymore. On to the next recon satellite.

Wonder who might do such a fiendish thing?

[BenLurkin]