Moving to the Moon by train? American Northrop Grumman will study a lunar railway
In the United States, Darpa has commissioned the aerospace company Northrop Grumman to study the feasibility of a so-called "Moon Railway". All the details
A railway to the moon? Northrop Grumman will try to discover its feasibility.
In the United States, Darpa (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), a government agency of the Department of Defense responsible for the development of new technologies for military use, has selected the American aerospace and defense technology company to study the feasibility of building a "railway lunar” on the moon.
According to Darpa, the potential network of railroads and trains could transport humans, supplies and resources for projects on the Moon, contributing to a “space economy.” By some estimates, the so-called moon economy could become a $170 billion market by 2040.
“The planned lunar rail network could transport humans, supplies and resources for commercial ventures across the lunar surface,” explains a note from Northrop Grumman.
All the details.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN WILL STUDY A MOON RAILWAY FOR DARPA
Then Northrop Grumman will conceptualize lunar trains for Darpa.
The company will be tasked with determining what resources and interfaces are needed to build a lunar railway, determining the cost of such a project and naming any risks to the venture. It will also need to identify prototypes and explore concepts for building and operating the system with robotics.
WITHIN THE LUNA-10 PROJECT
The project is part of Darpa's Lunar Architecture – or LunA-10 – the ten-year study on the capabilities of the lunar architecture (LunA-10) of the Department of Defense's distant future organization. The goal is to develop a quantifiable analysis to achieve a “self-sustaining, monetizable, commercially owned and operated lunar infrastructure.”
“LunA-10 continues this rich legacy by identifying and accelerating key technologies that could be used by the government and commercial space industry and ultimately to catalyze economic vitality on the Moon,” said Dr. Michael Nayak, head of the Darpa's strategic technology program.
BLUE ORIGIN, SPACEX AND FIREFLY AEROSPACE ALSO AT WORK
In addition to Northrop Grumman, Darpa selected thirteen companies to conduct experiments and studies last December. These include Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, Elon Musk's SpaceX, Sierra Aerospace and Firefly Aerospace. Each will discuss their work next month at the Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium before providing a final report in June.
Darpa did not disclose the budget for the effort or the size of the individual contracts, Breaking Defense points out.
THE RACE TO THE MOON
Finally, as Quartz reminds us, the United States is not alone in pursuing the lunar economy.
Both Beijing and Washington already have plans in place to establish moon bases by the end of the decade, and NASA's Artemis mission is expected to be the first to return humans to the lunar surface. Japanese researchers at Kyoto University have proposed an interplanetary transportation system – the Hexatrack – that would allow people to take a high-speed train to the moon. They also aim to build “The Glass”, an artificial gravity structure that will house public transport, green areas and bodies of water.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/muoversi-sulla-luna-in-treno-lamericana-northrop-grumman-studiera-una-ferrovia-lunare/ on Fri, 29 Mar 2024 06:26:38 +0000.