What if we tied all of these facilities together with MagLev Monorail with shelter Stations along the way for protection from Solar Storms?
a) What if we built a MagLev Monorail system on the Lunar Surface to move personnel around from Facility to Facility without having to use ballistic methods and their inherent hazards?
b) What if we built Storm Shelters along the system to allow the Vehicles to stop and weather out Solar Storms if need be?
c) What if we allowed these Storm Shelters to be developed into prospecting hubs for prospecting the surface for more minerals?
Special Local Space Events:
=======================================
LepreCon39
Further Information when available.
See http://www.leprecon.org/
=======================================
TELEPRECENSE REMOTE CONTROL RACES
(Still on going planning for Races.)
The Moon Society Phoenix is still working on the Teleprecense Remote Control races.
Check this blog for details as they develop.
We are still discussing set-ups, rules, equipment and sponsorship rules at this time and it appears that the races wont occur until sometime in the late winter or early spring.
All races will be open to all comers, however, judging maybe bases on age and type (cost) of RV Car. If you prefer to buy your own car and practice for the races, then you will need a three (3) channel RC Car that can be purchased at Walmart, Target or another store. You will need a minature TV camera, a transmitter, a receiver and a device to display the picture from the Car so that you can practice driving the Car by use of the TV System only.
In the talking stages are basic racing, advanced races, and the Lunar Challenge, race heats may be run against the clock and/or one on one or more.
If you have comments and suggestions please make your comments to this blog or send them to me at portercd@msn.com Subject RC Racing.
Demonstrations of the Race Cars will be available at CopperCon32 at the Moon Society Outreach Table.
Craig
=======================================
LepreCon39
Further Information when available.
See http://www.leprecon.org/
=======================================
TELEPRECENSE REMOTE CONTROL RACES
(Still on going planning for Races.)
The Moon Society Phoenix is still working on the Teleprecense Remote Control races.
Check this blog for details as they develop.
We are still discussing set-ups, rules, equipment and sponsorship rules at this time and it appears that the races wont occur until sometime in the late winter or early spring.
All races will be open to all comers, however, judging maybe bases on age and type (cost) of RV Car. If you prefer to buy your own car and practice for the races, then you will need a three (3) channel RC Car that can be purchased at Walmart, Target or another store. You will need a minature TV camera, a transmitter, a receiver and a device to display the picture from the Car so that you can practice driving the Car by use of the TV System only.
In the talking stages are basic racing, advanced races, and the Lunar Challenge, race heats may be run against the clock and/or one on one or more.
If you have comments and suggestions please make your comments to this blog or send them to me at portercd@msn.com Subject RC Racing.
Demonstrations of the Race Cars will be available at CopperCon32 at the Moon Society Outreach Table.
Craig
=======================================
Monday, February 26, 2007
TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS
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3 comments:
Craig,
I have been thinking along these lines for some time. Railroads, conventional or maglev, are the ideal way to spread lunar settlement across the Moon. David Schrunk et al. came to the same conclusion in their book, The Moon: Resources, Future Development, and Colonization.
RR corridors will likely also host piplines and power lines and parallel highways.
Flare sheds at intervals, as you suggest. Some of these, where possible, could be placed at logical "junction" sites.
Now to add another idea. Railroads will be an ideal way to ship habitat modules made at a central location. These can be permanently mounted on trucks (railroad wheel assemblies) and put on a siding under the flare shed to serve as the nucleus of a new settlement. Or they could be offloaded from flatbeds onto a prepared foundation alongside a siding.
Maglev is ideal for high speed, but we need, I think, to find a superconducting matrial that can be prepared entirely from lunar materials and which will be super-conducting at the temperature of very abundant liquid oxygen, only slightly higher than very scarce liquid nitrogen. I haven't looked at this in a decade, but back then, there were no suitable candidate superconductors. I expect that we will have found several by the time we need them.
I have been planning a fresh article on lunar railroads for Moon Miners' manifesto, and will be happy to share the byline with you.
Peter Kokh, Editor MMM, kokhmmm@aol.com
Craig,
This is my third attempt, thanks to all the #@$% hoops Google is making me go through.
Railroads on the Moon, yes. I have written about them at length. RR right of ways will also host pipelines, communications cables, and parallel highways.
Flare sheds at intervals, yes. Where possible, these can be located at logical "junction points" for branch lines, making the sheds in question ideal nuclei for new towns. The first facilities to be built there should be service stations and garages for road vehicles, restaurant-inns, etc.
New habitat modules, manufactured at a central facility, could be offloaded on a siding under a flare shed to serve as a starter town.
These modules could be integrated with the flatbeds that carried them so that they could be repositioned when necessary on the siding complex. Or they could be offloaded onto a prepared foundation next to the siding.
Maglev is ideal for highspeed passenger transit, and hopefully, population growth may support that. But I wouldn't rule out cheaper, conventional railroads for most cargo and light passenger traffic.
Solar power stations along the rails would power everything. Fuel Cells during the nightspan. Norfolk and Western, some years ago, designed a nuclear-powered locomotive which never got built because of public attitudes.
However, IMHO, we need to identify a superconducting material made entirely of elements reasonably abundant on the Moon. Ideally, that superconductor would work at the temperature of liquid oxygen, vastly more abundant than nitrogen on the Moon. The last time I looked at this issue, in MMM #66 back in 1993, we had not identified such a superconductor. But surely we will have one by the time we need it.
I have been working on a fresh article on Lunar Railroads for Moon Miners' Manifesto, and will be happy to share the byline with you.
Peter Kokh
Editor Moon Miners' Manifesto
www.moonminersmanifesto.com
kokhmmm@aol.com
I agree completely, except I would suggest that the Highspeed should be used out to the fringe areas then the items offloaded on to surface movers and transported to the new location by the slower vehicles that can go the places the the Monorail can't. Then as the new habitat is built the Monorail can be built out to it.
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