Can you imagine going to your nearest train station and catching the next train to the Moon? Well, that’s not going to happen, let’s not get crazy. What they are working on is a train that operates on the Moon for the next phases of lunar colonization.
In preparation for a permanent human colony on the Moon, DARPA has awarded a contract to Northrop Grumman to develop a lunar railroad concept, as part of the Lunar Architecture Capabilities Study (LunA-10), which will last for 10 years.
Circulating a train on the Moon may seem like a profound nonsense, but there is a very solid logic behind it. Even when the first astronauts landed on the Sea of Tranquility in 1969, it was understood that a permanent human presence on Mars would require an infrastructure to sustain it. That includes ice mines, nuclear power plants, factories, and railways.
A train on the moon is not nonsense, but it is something difficult
Although many people think that the Moon is small, it is actually a very large place, with a surface area equivalent to that of Africa. In such an expanse, even limited presence would require some kind of transportation system to connect different outposts and activities.
Railways make a lot of sense. Aside from their logistical value, they are a way to solve one of the main problems of the Moon: dust. Lunar dust is extremely abrasive and corrosive.
Due to the complete lack of water, static electricity from dust causes it to adhere to space suits and equipment, leaving them not only dirty but with a reduced lifespan. Traveling by train would greatly reduce the contact between humans and dust as they move from one place to another.
Another aspect to consider are the roads. Lunar buggies could be used, and undoubtedly will be used, but they destroy the lunar surface. On Earth, leaving tracks usually means they will disappear due to rain and erosion in a short time. On the Moon, they remain intact for billions of years. Even if it’s just for aesthetic reasons, it would be good to minimize the damage.
The new contract covers some of the basic aspects of developing a railway of this type. Northrop Grumman will be responsible for determining the interfaces and resources necessary to build a lunar railway, making a critical list of foreseeable risks in terms of costs, technology, and logistics, developing prototypes up to conceptual design and architecture, and figuring out how to build the railway with robots.
This seems like the beginning of a series in the style of For All Mankind, a series that we highly recommend if you like the space and dystopian genre.
