Researchers Use Light to Make Objects Float—NASA Takes Interest in Closest Thing to Hoverboards!

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have discovered and created a working prototype of two objects that uses only Light to float and hover in their place. The technology has features that bear a striking resemblance to Hoverboards, which are skateboards that floats, and has now caught the attention of NASA for the innovation.

While light is an element of pure energy, regular people would find it impossible to accept or deduce that it can make objects float as it does not have any propelling features on it. However, the scientists have managed to do so, with the help of a set of light-emitting diodes (LED) that are packed in a vacuum, and concentrated the energy on two plastic trays.

Scientists have created a "hovering" technology that has propelled this lightweight plastic to float off the ground and move around the vacuum chamber. While the technology is not yet a massive breakthrough for hoverboards and future spacecraft propellers and engines, it certainly got NASA's attention to work and develop on it.

Light as Source of Energy and Making Objects Float

The solar ball of gas and plasma, also known as the Sun, is a good source of energy for plants, humans, the Earth, and solar paneling technology which utilizes sunlight to bring power. This is almost the same case for the researchers from the University of Pennsylvania which made use of light energy and transform it into power that can propel objects.

According to Futurism, the innovation is a "magic carpet" out of light, as it floats around and hovers inside the vacuum. The researchers have only applied it to two tiny objects but it could be a potential innovation that can fastrack human technology for years.

Moreover, sci-fi films that show futuristic propellers that do not use fans, fuel, and combustion to fly make use of either magnetic or light technology. The researcher's breakthrough is the current closest thing to this, making the technology one of the most advanced in the modern era and using light energy for other applications such as this.

Mohsen Azadi reported that the team was surprised when the two sample objects lifted off the surface using only the LED light's energy to float. The groups used "Mylar" in the experiment, which is an object that is mostly used for thermal blankets that are lightweight and cheap. Additionally, its opposite side was lined with a carbon-threaded piece of carpet.

NASA is Interested in Light Hovering Technology-Hoverboarding in Mars?

Additionally, one of the technology's first interested potential clients is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), as the group reported. Moreover, the scientists want to observe the technology on the mesosphere, which is an area higher than the Earth's atmosphere.

The group thinks that this would potentially be an adequate technology for space, and with NASA stepping up to discover Mars, it could be one of the first technologies it would send there. The hover technology could be used for a massive array of potential tech for space which is why NASA is already invested in its idea and creation.

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Written by Isaiah Alonzo