Lunar Frontier Transport System

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Lunar 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
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Lunar 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

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Lunar 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
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The Space Elevator

• Climbing Capsules
• Free launch above GEO

• But
• Collision Risk
• Endangers other Satellites

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The Lunar Space Elevator
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Space Elevator Inventors
Yuri Artsutanov and Jerome Pearson St.
Petersburg, Russia, September 2006
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Lunar Space Elevators are Easier
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Types of Lunar Space Elevators
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Integrated 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

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Mining 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
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Polar Express Tramway
200 km crater, 4 km deep
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Long 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.

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Robotic Climber Design

• 500-kg Climbers
• 100 Climbers on Ribbon
• 10-20 m/s Speed
• 340,000 kg/yr

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Meteoroid-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
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LSE Ribbon and CW Mass
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LSE to Earth Orbit Launches
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Stations on the Polar Express

• Equatorial
• Regolith mining
• Factories
• Habitats
• Catenary stops on the 2700-km long Polar Express
• Mineral deposits
• Water ice mining
• Propellants

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Two Man Crew Cab
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Transportation Architecture
Earth
L1
Ballast
Payloads
Moon
Payloads
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Conclusions

• 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