Posted on 03/25/2024 8:13:03 AM PDT by Twotone
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has set its sights on the Moon, recently choosing defense giant Northrop Grumman to work on concepts for building a lunar railroad network, according to the Debrief.
The recent development is DARPA's latest announcement concerning their 10-year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) Capability Study. The ultimate goal is to reportedly establish a human colony on the Moon and a "thriving lunar economy."
DARPA published the following statement about the development:
The 10-Year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) will explore the rapid development of foundational technology concepts designed to move away from individual scientific efforts within isolated, self-sufficient systems and toward a series of shareable, scalable, resource-driven systems that interoperate – minimizing lunar footprint and creating monetizable services for future lunar users.
LunA-10 Topic Area 1 (TA-1) focuses on a portfolio of lunar providers and users who will, together, define a series of future integrated lunar frameworks that take advantage of commercial development and nongovernmental funding streams. Each integrated system design and framework will be backed by a quantitative analysis of needs, validated analysis for anticipated use case(s), concepts of operations, scaling analysis for foundational systems, and metrics for integrated system performance. Performers will identify current investments and future technical challenges toward achieving these goals.
Though building a lunar railroad might be something dreamed up in a science fiction story, it reportedly reflects the Department of Defense's curious interest in lunar operations and its ambition of establishing a military presence on the Moon.
Northrop Grumman made the following statement about the project: “The envisioned lunar railroad network could transport humans, supplies, and resources for commercial ventures across the lunar surface – contributing to a space economy for the United States and international partners."
Northrop Grumman was just one of 14 companies selected by DARPA in December 2023 to participate in the study, according to Space.com.
Michael Nayak — program manager in DARPA's Strategic Technology Office — said: "A large paradigm shift is coming in the next 10 years for the lunar economy."
"To get to a turning point faster, LunA-10 uniquely aims to identify solutions that can enable multi-mission lunar systems — imagine a wireless power station that can also provide comms and navigation in its beam," Nayak said.
He went on to say that such a project will accelerate "key technologies that may be used by government and the commercial space industry, and ultimately to catalyze economic vibrancy on the moon."
Hire Elon Musk and the Boring Company to plan and build tunnels on the Moon. They’ll get it done for one-hundredth the cost. Heck, Musk probably already finished the plans and can provide it to DARPA for free.
Sounds about right. I have flown often from SF to LA and back. About a 45 minute flight. In the old days, was easy with no TSA to contend with. And I would sometimes drive, between 7 to 8 hours.
The stupid "high-speed" train will be stuck in the first 50 miles in and out of SF and LA, making it a 4 to 6 hour trip. Much easier to just fly and do it in a quarter of the elapsed time, unless you drive and spend a few more hours. The train is a complete waste of taxpayer money.
“a human colony on the Moon”
A prototype 15 minute village?
Light rail to connect all the high density housing with major lunar employment centers..
This must be tied to the presence of H3 (the perfect fusion reactor fuel) being found in large quantities, concentrated in the regolith on the surface of the moon
Wonder where they are going to cut the cross ties?
As an open ended cargo launcher, VERY fast, but short, lunar rail likely makes sense. With the caveat that the flight plan needs to be VERY secure. Why, well read the wonderful book!!! But as a way to send cargo into lunar orbit or even even back to earth it probably is the cheapest and most sustainable option from the Moon. And IF we ever establish a permanent settlement there, which my Heinlein infused childhood dreams encourage, we will want such. And the effort required to accomplish the former likely wouldn't require much more expense to provide that. Now whether rail links between separate lunar bases are cost effective or not depends on the distance. Might make more sense to launch into low lunar orbit and come back down at the destination.
I’m still waiting for resource gathering from asteroids…
Why not a bullet-train?
Let’s put that thing in orbit.
Too bad Evel Knievel isn’t around to see it.
We have a planned but not yet launched mission to asteroid Psyche. If it lives up to to expectations and we can figure how to harvest its resources all the gold bugs will be broke.
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