Lunar Transportation Systems

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. Two Holes of the appropriate size can be bored and the vertical stanchions for the Monorail set in place and anchored with Regolith after the cross bar is set between them. Then the "Construction Train", using a specially designed crane arm, can lift the Monorail section into place and secure it.

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 the boring 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 is going on, these "ConstructionTrains" 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 for many additions uses, such as places for Lunar Prospectors to gather for refitting, rest and recouperation, 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 then 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 using 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.

The reason I prefer the Monorail system is 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 easily done than people realize.

Craig D. Porter, March 9, 2007