HOW DO WE DO THIS?First we need to pull together a majority of the companies in the United States to form a company that can and will serve as the builder of a Commercial Space Station, Space Hotel, and the Lunar Settlements. This Company can also bid for the resupply missions to the ISS when the Shuttle is no longer flown by NASA. Let’s arbitrarily call this company the “Lunar Settlement Corporation” for Mission Defining Name.
The basic systems that can be used generally already exist, at least in the design stages, except for the “Space Tug” and even it has been shown in previous articles on how to work in space. The orbital “Service Station” and the “Transfer Vehicle”, these will need to be designed. The “Service Station” for extracting the extra fuel left in the main tanks of the lift vehicle for using in the fueling of the “Transfer Vehicles”. Also, a “Mass Driver” built in the Mountains of the Western United States can be used to place “Hard” Cargo in Earth Orbit for docking to the Commercial Space Station or the ISS after a final burn to match orbit. Humans, “Soft” Cargo, will have to be placed in orbit using the vehicles of the “Space Tourism” Business either in Contract with the “Lunar Settlement Corporation” or for their own Tourism Businesses.
The prototype of the “Construction Vehicles” already exist as “Moon Buggies”, they will work with minor and some major modifications. An Initial “Survival Hut” for the construction team can be the “Landing Vehicle” or an “Inflatable Igloo” or “Quonset Hut” that can be quickly covered with the Moon’s Regolith, the surface material, with one of the construction vehicles. This will allow the construction Crew a safe Habitat for the initial building of the Lunar Station.
With the material from the “Cargo Landers” that will deliver the material for the construction can then build the first permanent Lunar Station, the Initial Fuel Depot for the Lunar Excursion Vehicles and the Processing Machines to start on the extraction of materials from the Lunar Surface.
As the extraction takes place, the processing of the available metals will allow the construction of additional living and work space for the Lunar Base. The additional metal can be processed into other products for return to Earth Orbit or Lunar Orbit to build what ever is required. With the additional products the “Mass Driver” can be built and enlarged, electronic devices can be fabricated, additional Oxygen can be stored for Station use and for the “Service Station” and a Lunar surface “Fuel Depot”. Given sufficient Hydrogen sources available the second part of the Fuel Depot can be supplied and Water and additional power by “Fuel Cells” can be gained. “Fuel Cells” may also be used as the power for the construction vehicles during the Lunar Night.
New designs that will have to be created will include the “Space Tugs”, “Transfer Vehicles”, “Orbital Fuel Depot”, “Lunar Orbiter”, “Processing Machines” and new procedures for control of the system.
Once the first Settlement is built and operational, it is likely that more Settlements will be needed and there will be a need for transportation from one to the others. When we start this process of expansion we will need a dependable transportation source to move the material to the new site and begin the expansion.
With the advent of more than one Lunar Settlement there will have to be a way to get from one to another without using Rocket Powered Sub-Orbital Vehicles. The reason for a safer more reliable method of moving people and products from point to another on the surface of the moon is speed, safety and volume of movement.
With a Lunar surface based transport system the system can be operated on a schedule that will allow the transfer of material and personnel to be moved routinely from one point to another in comfort and safety.
I recommend the use of a Monorail type mover as the vehicle of choice. I also think that the Monorail should be a Magnetic Levitation type of drive power. The choice of the Maglev allows the use of the vehicle with little if any wear on the rail system and the Monorail cars. The Maglev Monorail will be levitated above the rail surface but not contacting it, therefore no wear and tear.
The Monorail system can be built as the new settlements are being built, either as a prelude to the actual building of the Settlement or as it is being built. I believe that it should be built prior to the actual construction of a new settlement. If it is built first then it can be used to transport the construction material and personnel to the new site in a construction train. This Construction train can have material transfer cars that are the equivalents of the Flat Cars and Box Cars of the Earth’s Rail Roads to move the materials.
The Monorail Construction Train can be designed so that the material cars can be at the forward part of the Train and as the Monorail system is built the “Train” moves up to the end of the line and moves the parts of the anchor system for the Monorail into position for setting. This can be accomplished by having an off train construction crew in a vehicle that can bore holes in the Lunar surface. Then the Construction train, using a specially designed crane arm, can lift the Vertical Stanchions off of the construction train and lower them into the Bore Holes, then it can lift the Cross piece into position and the parts can be secured. Then the Construction train, using a specially designed crane arm, can lift the Monorail section into place and secure it. The two bore holes of the appropriate size can be bored prior to the laying of the rails for the previous section of track. The vertical stanchions for the rails can be anchored with Regolith after the cross bar and rails are set. Additionally, a second rail can be installed at this time so that trains can be moving in both directions and pass each other without fear of collision. Once the boring crew finishes the bore holes it can move onto the next site and start boring the hole for it. As the previous site is finished up and the fill crew has back filled the bore holes that the vertical stanchions were placed in they can move onto the new site to repeat the process.
While this construction vehicles will have to be rugged enough to weather Solar Storms that occur. But as the rail line is build there can be places along the route that can be made into “Storm Shelters” for the later Monorails. These storm shelters can be adapted to many additions uses, such as places for Lunar Prospectors to gather for refitting, rest and recuperation, medical care and loading ore onto the Monorail for processing at a settlement.
As the Monorail line reaches the location of the new settlement it can build right on past the point and build a turn-a-round for the monorail so that it can return to the original departure point of the monorail on the second track that it build on the way out to the new settlement.
The next Monorail train into the site would have the construction materials for the initial work on the settlement along with a “Construction Hut” and the personnel to do the building and the immediate support personnel. As each new train arrives, more personnel can be brought in along with more construction material.
Communications with the different settlements can also be part of the Monorail system with Fiber Optic and/or Co-Axial cable networks. These networks can be placed along the underside of the Monorail system to protect them from electromagnetic and micrometeor damage.
By using the Monorail system, it will require less ground work to put in the system. No graded and surveyed embankments that add large amounts of man-hours and labor to do. The construction of the Monorail should prove to be more economical and quicker to complete with less danger to the construction crews.
