Title: Lunar Frontier Transport System
1Lunar Frontier Transport System
Rutgers Symposium on Lunar Settlements 3-8 June
2007 Jerome Pearson
Co-Authors Harry Wykes, Eugene Levin, John
Oldson, Klaus Heiss, and Paul van Susante Star
Technology and Research, Inc. Mount Pleasant, SC
USA
2Lunar Transportation Options
- Surface Options
- Roads for Cars and Trucks
- Aerial Tramways for Cable Cars
- Flight Options
- Ballistic Rockets
- Lunar Mass Drivers or Slings
- Space Elevators
3Lunar Slings Outdo Mass Drivers
Type h, km r, km Vtip, km/s atip, gs P, kW Tons/day
Low Orbit 4 12 1.68 24 100 3
Escape 4 24 2.38 24 100 3
4The Space Elevator
- Climbing Capsules
- Free launch above GEO
- But
- Collision Risk
- Endangers other Satellites
5The Lunar Space Elevator
6Space Elevator Inventors
Yuri Artsutanov and Jerome Pearson St.
Petersburg, Russia, September 2006
6
7Lunar Space Elevators are Easier
8Types of Lunar Space Elevators
9Integrated Transportation System
- Polar Crater Mining System
- Pole to Equator Aerial Tramway
- Equator to L1 Lunar Space Elevator
- Tramway Vehicles and Elevator Climbers
- Ion Propulsion for Free Flyers to Earth orbit
10Mining a Polar Crater
ISRU Scenario for Lunar-Based Water Observatories
Water Vapour Collection in Observatory Transport
Vapour at 270K ( 2 Torr) Collect at lt 100K (
1 x 10-9 Torr) 1 x 106 kg H2O 5 Year
Collection Time 110 kW power consumption
11Polar Express Tramway
200 km crater, 4 km deep
12Long Earth Spans
- Longest And Highest Gondola RideThe highest and
longest passenger-carrying aerial ropeway in the
world is the Teleférico Mérida in Venezuela, from
Mérida City, at 1640 m (5380 ft), to the summit
of Pico Espejo, at 4764 m (15,630 ft), a rise of
3124 m (10,250 ft). - Worlds longest ropeway, measuring roughly 96 km,
was opened in 1943. It was used to transport ore
from the mine in Kristineberg to Boliden, from
where the ore was transported by railway to the
smelting plant in Rönnskär. The ropeway was shut
down in 1987, after transporting about 12 million
tons of ore concentrate.
13Robotic Climber Design
- 500-kg Climbers
- 100 Climbers on Ribbon
- 10-20 m/s Speed
- 340,000 kg/yr
14Meteoroid-Safe Ribbons
Mean Time Between Meteor Cuts T, yrs 6
h2.6/L h width, mm L length, km
Strands 2 3 4 5 6
Safety Factor 4 3 2.7 2.5 2.4
15LSE Ribbon and CW Mass
16LSE to Earth Orbit Launches
17Stations on the Polar Express
- Equatorial
- Regolith mining
- Factories
- Habitats
- Catenary stops on the 2700-km long Polar Express
- Mineral deposits
- Water ice mining
- Propellants
18Two Man Crew Cab
19Transportation Architecture
Earth
L1
Ballast
Payloads
Moon
Payloads
20Conclusions
- Lunar space elevators and tramways provide
complete cis-lunar transportation - The system is achievable, and provides
- a new architecture for lunar development
- Two-way transportation carries Earth materials
to lunar bases and lunar materials to Earth orbit