Northrop Grumman will design a railway on the Moon.
Northrop Grumman will design a railway on the Moon.
The contract to create a railroad concept for a lunar colony was awarded to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
The project is being implemented as part of the Lunar Architecture program (LunA-10), aimed at studying aspects of capital construction on the Earth's natural satellite.
The need to build a railway on the Moon is dictated by two factors.
The first factor is the long distances between target objects, such as mineral deposits or water ice. The Moon is too big to walk on, much less transport any cargo. Therefore, a special transport system is necessary for its development.
The second factor is more important. Due to the absence of atmosphere and moisture, dust on the Moon does not turn into dirt, and the soil is not subject to erosion. In this regard, the resulting small grains of sand do not disappear anywhere, but are present on the surface, exerting a mechanical effect on everything they come into contact with. Dust particles accumulate static electricity and deform everything around. As a result, even more small particles are formed.
Dust settles on everything, gradually destroying any equipment, including spacesuits. Therefore, we need transport that will not generate dust when moving.
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