Comment box Scope: information, remarks Tone: neutral, dry humor Opinion: none Sarcasm/humor: yes The United States government investigates the engineering necessary to build freight (and maybe...
Comment box
Scope: information, remarks
Tone: neutral, dry humor
Opinion: none
Sarcasm/humor: yes
The United States government investigates the engineering necessary to build freight (and maybe passenger) railways on the moon. Yes, that moon. Yes, railways. Alon Levy comments on how the moon's lower gravity might result in different track designs and layouts for lunar railways.
I think the moon is a great place to experiment with transit-oriented development, but the lack of oxygen makes me worry about real estate values. How will investors get returns on rail-adjacent properties if residents struggle with the toxic (lack of) atmosphere?
It's a pretty interesting concept - and I definitely understand the rationale for wanting rail on a place like the moon. I don't know a lot about astrophysics, and this isn't the focal point of...
It's a pretty interesting concept - and I definitely understand the rationale for wanting rail on a place like the moon. I don't know a lot about astrophysics, and this isn't the focal point of the article, but how would the lack of protective atmosphere impact the longevity of rail? Would we have to worry about meteorites impacting rail lines?
It would fall under astrophysics AFAIK, but these questions would be better asked to someone in an engineering role for NASA for example. I'm also not expert but if anything, I'd imagine the lack...
It would fall under astrophysics AFAIK, but these questions would be better asked to someone in an engineering role for NASA for example.
I'm also not expert but if anything, I'd imagine the lack of atmosphere in and of itself increases the longevity. At least of the metal parts. Radiation doesn't seem like a big deal for a big chuck of steel either. So I reckon it indeed comes down to meteorites etc impacting the rail.
Other parts of the railway network I imagine being more fragile. Any electronics used for instance will need to be able to withstand the increased radiation levels compared to earth.
To complement: rust is iron oxide. Which cannot to form in, well, oxygen free environment. I wonder how cooling could be an issue though. Conventional brakes relies on friction, which creates...
I'm also not expert but if anything, I'd imagine the lack of atmosphere in and of itself increases the longevity. At least of the metal parts.
To complement: rust is iron oxide. Which cannot to form in, well, oxygen free environment.
I wonder how cooling could be an issue though.
Conventional brakes relies on friction, which creates heat, which isn't as easily dumped into the atmosphere as in earth (again, because there's none). Even regenerative (induction) breaking will produce some heat.
Is all this heat enough to damage the rails and/or wheels ? Assuming it's easier to insulate things in space, can we redirect this heat elsewhere to produce some work ? Since I assume that there's active cooling, would maglev be more practical ?
I don't necessarily think heat would be that much of an issue depending on where. You're not in space, but on the lunar surface. So you have a massive (in places very cold) heatsink available....
I don't necessarily think heat would be that much of an issue depending on where. You're not in space, but on the lunar surface. So you have a massive (in places very cold) heatsink available.
There's places on the moon that can get fairly hot though, so perhaps that causes some issues somehow. But that's a different problem I suppose. Also there are very large temperature swings on the equator which I guess can be problematic.
But since you bring up maglev, that's an interesting point. Again depending on where on the moon, you can get very low temperatures giving you quite some options in superconductors to use. So that could get quite interesting.
Comment box
The United States government investigates the engineering necessary to build freight (and maybe passenger) railways on the moon. Yes, that moon. Yes, railways. Alon Levy comments on how the moon's lower gravity might result in different track designs and layouts for lunar railways.
I think the moon is a great place to experiment with transit-oriented development, but the lack of oxygen makes me worry about real estate values. How will investors get returns on rail-adjacent properties if residents struggle with the toxic (lack of) atmosphere?
It's a pretty interesting concept - and I definitely understand the rationale for wanting rail on a place like the moon. I don't know a lot about astrophysics, and this isn't the focal point of the article, but how would the lack of protective atmosphere impact the longevity of rail? Would we have to worry about meteorites impacting rail lines?
It would fall under astrophysics AFAIK, but these questions would be better asked to someone in an engineering role for NASA for example.
I'm also not expert but if anything, I'd imagine the lack of atmosphere in and of itself increases the longevity. At least of the metal parts. Radiation doesn't seem like a big deal for a big chuck of steel either. So I reckon it indeed comes down to meteorites etc impacting the rail.
Other parts of the railway network I imagine being more fragile. Any electronics used for instance will need to be able to withstand the increased radiation levels compared to earth.
To complement: rust is iron oxide. Which cannot to form in, well, oxygen free environment.
I wonder how cooling could be an issue though.
Conventional brakes relies on friction, which creates heat, which isn't as easily dumped into the atmosphere as in earth (again, because there's none). Even regenerative (induction) breaking will produce some heat.
Is all this heat enough to damage the rails and/or wheels ? Assuming it's easier to insulate things in space, can we redirect this heat elsewhere to produce some work ? Since I assume that there's active cooling, would maglev be more practical ?
I don't necessarily think heat would be that much of an issue depending on where. You're not in space, but on the lunar surface. So you have a massive (in places very cold) heatsink available.
There's places on the moon that can get fairly hot though, so perhaps that causes some issues somehow. But that's a different problem I suppose. Also there are very large temperature swings on the equator which I guess can be problematic.
But since you bring up maglev, that's an interesting point. Again depending on where on the moon, you can get very low temperatures giving you quite some options in superconductors to use. So that could get quite interesting.