NASA & Arx Pax to jointly develop Hover devices to control formation flight of Nano Satellites

In late 2014, the Internet was all abuzz over a video that purported to show a working hoverboard called Hendo hoverboard, sailing over a copper track—rider attached.

Exploiting Arx Pax’s Magnetic Field Architecture (MFA) technology, the Hendo hoverboard uses electromagnetic energy—with two downward-firing disc-shaped “hover engines” creating an opposing magnetic field—to levitate itself off the ground. Hendo is based on maglev train technology, but where maglev needs tracks to stay balanced, the Hendo can move in multiple directions.

“The primary magnetic field in our hover engines—and that’s where the secret sauce is—focuses electromagnetic energy downward.” “Our hover engine is over a conductive surface, which can be many different substances, and it generates a primary magnetic field. That field creates the eddy currents in the surface, and then the eddy current, following Lenz’s Law again, generates a secondary magnetic field. That mirrors the primary magnetic field. And just like two north poles of two different magnets, they repel one another. That generates lift.”