Originally posted by zeeblebotthe same guys made a giant dinosaur robot that folds up into an eighteen-wheeler trailer, and spits fire ... the article was in Servo magazine (a robotics mag) but i forget their site ...
why not make the train length equal to the circumference of the moon ... and use external impellers ...
even if it wasn't that long, you could use the impellers ...
some guys out in california that do Junkyard Dogs kind of stuff made a weapon ... two tires spinning in opposite directions but almost touching, driven by a car motor ... fed two by four ...[text shortened]... g like that ... think i've seen something similar on some of the theme coasters at disney ...
A friend of mine had a similarly stoned idea and used it for his Physics PHD. You take a rope (a bloody strong one) which is approx. 200 miles long (he worked it out exactly but i can't remember details).
Now, you connect it to a rocket and fire it out into space. One end of the rope is attched to the earth, the other end to the rocket. The rocket is progammed to release the rope exactly the moment that it is stretched to straight. He calculated that, assuming the rope was going 'straight up', the force of gravity pulling it down would be perfectly balanced with the force throwing it out. Thus, the rope would stay straight for the rest of eternity (well, as long as the Earth was still there and had the same mass, etc...). I was impressed by the maths he used to prove it, didn't understand a single bit of it but it looked REALLY complicated! Anyways, nice idea! What brought that one on?? 😉
Originally posted by marinakatombwell sure, but you have this tiny problem with the atmosphere to
A friend of mine had a similarly stoned idea and used it for his Physics PHD. You take a rope (a bloody strong one) which is approx. 200 miles long (he worked it out exactly but i can't remember details).
Now, you connect it to a r ...[text shortened]... LLY complicated! Anyways, nice idea! What brought that one on?? 😉
deal with. Besides, that is just the first section of the space elevator,
you don't stop at 200 miles but run it out to 150,000 miles with a
big anchor at the geostationary "Clarke" orbit, 22,400 miles up.
Then you can do useful things, like getting into space with about
1000 times less energy per pound and go up far enough, you get
past earth's escape velocity. It is interesting looking at the orbital
velocity along the rope. The velocity at the 200 mile height puts it
at about 1000 MPH, so if you just went that high and jumped off
you would promptly go flying back to earth, although if you had
a booster rocket with you, it would be a bit easier to get into a real
orbit because you are above the atmosphere but thats all you get
there. You have to go all the way to the 22,000 mile distance to
actually be able to step off and not immediately start falling back, at
that height, you will have achieved earth orbit merely by climbing up the
rope. Now if you have another station thousands of miles higher yet,
and it has stabalized its orbit to keep the rope straight, and go to
150,000 miles up or so, you are now going faster than escape velocity
and can continue with very little extra boost to most of the planets in
the solar system.
Originally posted by PawnCurryThat might be a valid way to go, there is evidence for the existance
How about just creating an array of solar cells at both poles, rotating once every 28 days so they constantly point towards the sun?
Does away with the need for a huge train track...!
of water ice in craters always in the dark near the poles.
This hasn't been proven yet so there are probes being built or planned
to make detailed studies there. If so the whole colony would be
built around the presence of that ice. You can use the energy
harvested to split the water into hydrogen and oxygen, for fuel
and atmosphere and of course water. It all depends on how much
if any is found. There is so little water on the sunlit minerals it
would be a major undertaking to get enough for a colony, so
where you get energy is really a more minor component to making
a viable lunar colony.
I thought up the lunar railway more as a gimmick for a sci fi story
than anything real. It could work but the more immediate need is
to find water.
What are you going to build the track out of? Where will you get the raw material?
Stick with electric wheeled transportation in my opinion. Large lunar buggies possibly with minor jet capability to clear obstacles.
Better yet, stick people in pressure suits and stuff them into large plastic bubbles (sutably padded), launch them across the surface of the moon with an enormous elastic slingshot. Precisely calculated trajectories would be needed to ensure a 'catch' on the other end. Still you don't have wind, etc... to deal with.
Originally posted by Hand of HecateThere is a technology contest given by Nasa with the idea of getting
What are you going to build the track out of? Where will you get the raw material?
Stick with electric wheeled transportation in my opinion. Large lunar buggies possibly with minor jet capability to clear obstacles.
Better yet, stick people in pressure suits and stuff them into large plastic bubbles (sutably padded), launch them across the sur ...[text shortened]... needed to ensure a 'catch' on the other end. Still you don't have wind, etc... to deal with.
raw materials out of the lunar regolith. So it is possible to get
raw materials from the moon, use concentrated solar energy to
make the high temps needed for such work.
The bubble idea sounds a bit on the iffy side, works for the
martian rovers but with people inside it would be a bit like
going over Niagra falls in a barrel, Fast trip though🙂