NASA Electromagnetic Levitator

Over the summer of 2025, I worked at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, where I was tasked with building up a ground-based Electromagnetic Levitator to support International Space Station experiments. In addition to serving as a ground analog to microgravity research on station, electromagnetic levitation has future potential to perform material thermophysical characterization on the lunar or martian surface, supporting in-situ resource utilization by informing additive manufacturing processes. At the beginning of my internship, I inherited bits and pieces of hardware, including an empty vacuum chamber and a set of copper coils required to levitate a small sample. Throughout the course of my summer, I was able to bring this preliminary setup to a fully operational system, integrating instrumentation and vacuum capabilities, as well as an entirely new sample loading mechanism and set of levitation coils.

Electromagnetic Levitation uses a set of energized copper coils to create an alternating electric field, which in turn generates magnetic fields, trapping a sample between them

What makes it special:

•Copper coils heat via induction in tandem with levitation

•Able to levitate larger samples than Electrostatic Levitation (10mm diameter, rather than only 2mm)

•Only able to levitate materials that couple with magnetic fields

Designing the sample loading mechanism began by navigating the environmental challenges, including getting the sample in and out of the chamber while maintaining vacuum pressure, insulating user input from the energized copper coils, and using materials capable of withstanding extreme temperatures near the levitated sample

Balancing material properties, procurement timelines, and in-house capabilities, I was able to design a precise, side-loading mechanism, streamlining loading workflow and minimizing room for operator error. The final concept of operations was more simple and reliable than before.

A mandatory step in bringing the levitator to a fully operational state involved integrating instrumentation and vacuum capabilities to the chamber, which allowed us to control the environmental conditions during the test and monitor the sample's properties in real time.

On the levitation side, in order to expand the capabilities of the system, I had to introduce a larger, more robust set of copper coils. By optimizing turn radius and coil size, I was able to increase the possible test sample diameter from 6mm up to a 10mm alloy. The process of these upgrades is seen in the lefthand side diagram.

Bending these coils proved to be difficult, requiring me to develop an entirely novel coil bending fixture. Through an iterative design process, I was able to engineer a mandrel capable of producing optimal coil geometries with repeatable results. On the right is the traditional coil bending setup, and below is my innovative solution to improve coil set concentricity and thus levitation stability.

The new mandrel is designed to collapse once the center rod is removed, allowing the fixture to slide out of the copper coils. This give the user the capabiltity to bend the entire coil and even install the piece in the chamber, all while wound around the mandrel. This will reduce the chance for coil deformation and unintended altercations to geometry.

Finally, I designed future improvements for system implementation down the road, including an entirely motorized sample loading capability (view on the right) and a sample quenching table (see above), allowing fallen samples to be instantly cooled down in a coolant bucket. These capabilities will further the advancement of this system, allowing for a wider range of tasks and operations.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse