20.04.2024

Imagine it's the year 2034, and you're boarding a lunar railroad that will carry you from your research base to your living quarters after studying the lunar landscape. This isn't as far-fetched as you might think. NASA's Artemis program, for example, currently includes plans to establish a human presence on and around the moon, an outpost at the moon's south pole and expeditions across the lunar surface.

In fact, a moon economy with sustained human settlements, held together by a network of robots and automated trains for transportation on the moon, is solidly in the works.

Planning a Lunar Railway

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been developing a model for NASA, international governments and commercial industries to rapidly scale up both lunar exploration and commerce. The agency has been conducting a 10-Year Lunar Architecture Capability Study (LunA-10) with the goal of making progress in the development of future lunar habitats.

Scientists and engineers across the space community have teamed up during this seven-month-long study, combining their knowledge and skills to develop a future civil lunar framework with sturdy and reliable infrastructure for activities on the moon.

Fast Company and others report that, as part of the LunA-10 Capability Study, DARPA selected Northrop Grumman to develop the concept of a moon-based railroad network.

"For a mission to the moon today," says Northrop Grumman Program Manager Steven Floyd, "you must bring everything to the moon yourself — your mining experiment, your power and your communications equipment."

Once permanent lunar bases are established, surface transportation will be necessary to expand human activities.

Northrop Grumman Principal Investigator Spencer Levin, who came up with the idea for better transportation on the moon, says, "A lunar railway would provide mobility to many missions."

Connecting Valuable Locations on the Moon

Engineers at Northrop Grumman started by thinking innovatively about the feasibility of using a lunar railroad for transportation on the moon and identified several important uses. The lunar railroad could provide access to remote areas of the moon, such as permanently shadowed regions in the south pole region that may contain valuable deposits of water ice and hydrocarbons. Other local resources, such as mined regolith, could be used for construction instead of hauling the needed supplies all the way from Earth.

The study also looked at the types of metallic materials that could be extracted to produce the rail network. In an ideal situation, the lunar railroad would be constructed from indigenous lunar materials by tele-operated robots. "We're studying how to make the trains and the rail network with as much material sourced from the moon as possible," says Floyd.

The payloads, then, would need to be transported around the lunar base — for example, to and from living quarters to landing zones and other outposts. NASA or a private company could also use the moon as a launch point to Mars, so a lunar station would act as a depot, like the Wild West, where cities grew around train stations.

Advantages of Rail Transportation on the Moon

Another advantage of the lunar railroad is that railway carts move large quantities of materials significantly faster than traditional lunar rovers. "The rail network would move about the speed of a golf cart," says Floyd. Each train car is shaped like a large version of a mine cart and could haul enough material to fill a full-sized truck bed. Depending on demand, a single train could connect hundreds of cars.

Industrial-grade construction rovers with autonomous robotics would be the primary means of laying the track. Like bulldozers on Earth, these rovers would prepare the area and then place the materials. As the railroad grows outward from the lunar base, it would provide transportation for its growth and other construction projects, such as the lunar electric power grid, solar arrays and telecommunications networks. Eventually, the lunar rail system would be expanded to all geographic areas of interest.

In addition, LunA-10 investigated which type of propulsion mechanism made the most sense: batteries and electric motors versus electrification, which is currently used for light rail transit on Earth.

The Moon Meets Lunar Tourism

The study also looked at what could be monetizable. "There could be a market for people willing to pay for a tour around the moon," says Floyd. "A tourist might want to see different sights on the moon, and a rail network would facilitate those types of opportunities."

To an astronaut on the moon, riding the lunar railway might seem like an attraction at an amusement park, except that, instead of an artificial set, it's actually the surface of the moon.

"If someone wanted to send me to the moon and bring me back, I would 100% do that," says Levin, noting that the moon is still a wild, uncharted place.

"Part of the mission of Northrop Grumman is to have a vision for what the future could be," says Floyd. "We can do that because we understand how to operate complex vehicles in the harsh environment of the lunar surface."

Even if you don't get a seat on the lunar train, it's still possible that someone might send you a postcard from the moon someday... as long as the next plan is for a lunar post office.

Interested in all things in outer space and exploration? We are, too. Learn more about our people and life at Northrop Grumman, or check out our career opportunities to see how you can be a part of defining possible.

Quelle: Now Northrop Grumman