You are not logged in.
just doing some research and i decided to make it roughly the same size as a city bus (100" wide/tall by 40' long) that submarine is 50' long and 96" in diameter, so mine will end up being 120" shorter than that sub (still able to cary along a towed unit) but the same size in diameter.
As far as getting the vehicle there, it can technically be assembled out there (not very hard to do)
and it isn't like that shutle needs to be manned so you can send it out there ahead of time and all...
the motors on the vheicle could be a temporary power source for the camp till things are setup for more permanent use.
I was viewing the SSI website, they mentioned that they got their mass driver Model III down to 160 feet and that it could throw lunar material at the Lunar escape velocity. 160 feet doesn't seem that big, could we possibly build something like this along with the Moonbase were planning to build? I wonder if it might be possible to implement a part of O'Neill's plan, that is basically collecting Lunar rocks at L4 or L5. In any event, it certianly is a more efficient means of collecting Lunar rocks that stuffing them all abord the Lunar Lander and transfering them to the Orion spacecraft in Lunar orbit when the two craft dock.
I was waiting for them to want to impliment something like that too... not like its expensive to do and not like its all that hard to do either...
as soon as we get a base setup out there the games are on, its SO easy to start doing stuff in space, from building bases to makine new space craft...
I wouldn't be so sure. The cost of the orbital infrastructure needed to collect and process these ores into anything useful is likley to run into hundreds of billions. You get better value for money only if the scale of your programme justifies the investment.
the thing about space investment is that its long term investment not short term. the trick is... add in some short term investment inbetween the folds and you should be able to make some money then making it profitable.
I really like that idea... it would be taking my vehicle footprint from the size of an Audi Q7 to the size of a bus though, but no biggie. it WOULD allow way more usable area and you could easily fit 4 people in there comfortably... thanks for the idea! tomorrow when i have time i'll update the size of the vehicle and scale up the motors to be able to handle the difference in size/load.
I was viewing the SSI website, they mentioned that they got their mass driver Model III down to 160 feet and that it could throw lunar material at the Lunar escape velocity. 160 feet doesn't seem that big, could we possibly build something like this along with the Moonbase were planning to build? I wonder if it might be possible to implement a part of O'Neill's plan, that is basically collecting Lunar rocks at L4 or L5. In any event, it certianly is a more efficient means of collecting Lunar rocks that stuffing them all abord the Lunar Lander and transfering them to the Orion spacecraft in Lunar orbit when the two craft dock.
I was waiting for them to want to impliment something like that too... not like its expensive to do and not like its all that hard to do either...
as soon as we get a base setup out there the games are on, its SO easy to start doing stuff in space, from building bases to makine new space craft...
well for the arms... i was going to suggest them on there for helping to clear a good path. i dont know how many pics you've seen of the surface but it looks like a LOT of loose rocks about the size of a normal software box. with the arms on there it would be nice to pick them up and make a path or other small things like that that you couldn't normally lift up.
another thing with using the arms.. it would defeat the need to wear a space suite constantly when out there and allow better comfort being able to get samples of anything or work on anything from inside of a working vehicle that is basicly an extention of their body. as opposed to having to be fully suited up, and driving for possible long periods of time.
go driving arround in a full snow suite and boots for a while and tell me how comfortable you are. ha ha ha
as far as why not to use steel... it wouldn't really matter seeing as the planet makes everything weigh less since the gravity isn't as strong over there. so i'm not too concerned about weight. not to mention the motors are VERY light weight compared to most setup's out there.
I was going to suggest 2 in the main compartment and some both being towed behinde and using the towing for storage of extra equiptment.
personally assuming their techtonic plates dont shift frequently it would probably be better served to have the trains under ground, or in predesigned units like cylindars or something thats made on site (can be easy to make/assemble) but i would worry about the crazy storms the planet can have... thats why i'm suggesting something a bit more "protected".
If you are going to go with something more long range and still heavy lifting like a train then you are better off for some time just building something like a subway... even if it is partly above ground...
here is an example i just thought up... 10' in diameter tube that is easily constructed on the surface dig down 5' put it 1/2 way into the hole, then once its in, put in some structural bracing and then cover it with dirt/rocks. then you have a tube on the inside that is about 9' in diameter (accounting for the material being 6" thick) and you can put almost anything in there with out a problem to transport something decent sized.
That isn't what I have in mind. What I am thinking of is a ring that pulls the craft towards it accelerating them and then turns off, releasing the craft.
assuming the ring would have enough power to repel the earths field (effectively) with out drawing any type of metalic/iron particles at it high speed then dealing with launching something. it would be a great idea... i seriously really do like it just I think the scale would need to be imense to be able to take care of something like that.
What cad software Dragoneye are you using to do the design work in and have you looked at what Nasa is thinking of using on the moon?
Right now i'm using AutoCAD to do the designwork mostly because its very accurate and no i havn't looked at what NASA was looking at using on the moon mostly for personal reasons... the power supply on my vehicle needs a specific housing for it and thus i decided to just design my own vehicle to custom fit it.
for starters the vehicle wouldnt need to go 60-70 mph. Heres your first Martian ticket. Slow down son.
The steel composits would add weight to intial launch of the vehicle from earth which would require more money spent on fossil fuel. This also means more pollution. An aluminium frame mixed with titanium reinforcements would be best. The AL/TI (Aluminum = AL Titanium = TI)
structure would also be more resiliant to the corrosive effects of the Martian atmosphere. WIth the winds producing very bad wind storms, a steel body would deteriorate. Think of Mars as a big sand blaster. The steel will flake off when tiny grains of Martian soil hit it. Aluminium and Titanium are less likely to flake in this manner.I do like the overall structural design of the rover though.
Perhaps a larger crew compartment should be incorporated into the design, extend the rear of the rover back along the x axis maybe ten feet. Make the crew compartment a seperate vehicle with it's own engine.
The rear of the rover would be the equipment storage area. This part of the vehicle could be left behind to conserve the energy of the crew compartment when the crew would use the crew compartment to explore or in case of emergency.
I thought that i said that further up in my post that the earth bound one that i'm personally building will be mostly of composits and aluminium. but the one out there since usually cost isn't a big thing would be aluminum/titanium...
ok i reread my post and i didn't clarify what i was talking about in there... that steel part of the vehicle would be for most of the interior portions of it and it would be stainless so it wouldn't corrode.
I understand that you dont need a vehicle that goes very fast on the surface, but say they land in an area and want to scope out another area maybe say 2 days away with out using a take off vehicle... going 20mph to go 200 miles would take 10 hours... being able to go 70-80mph *assuming it clears its own path from most rock debris* it would take just under 3 hours.
as far as the crew pod being small this is intended for 2 personell and i'm actually currently trying to make sure that it fits on the roads here in the US so that when i'm in testing i can take it to various places and make sure i dont need to redesign any various parts of it.
I'm sure that the mars version will be almost identicle but i will add a trailor to it for extra storage, power, and anything else to allow there to be more room in the crew quarters.
I'd also really like for the vehicle to be able to do all the work from inside it instead of having to get out every time they need to look at something. so a nice set of robotic arms or something would be nice. but for my version it will be pretty plain mostly to test out the platform more than anything.
wouldn't you have to worry about radiation alot more then? and you would be using the power made by the neuclear rocket to move the vehicle instead of powering the vehicle its self.
ideas have been stolen from me before, so as a general rule i don`t give out an exact design. of course, MoonBike concept was independent from me. great points on here. the question of "beefiness", was answered quite well by addition of "assisting" motors, solar, etc.. & yes too, on here is the idea of a "trailer". consider this concept: while hauling the trailer & going "slow", route(s?) are being "mapped", & posibly staked out. so, on a later trip, there`s a safer ride. & the trailer can be dropped. then, the trailer can become a power station, etc..
I like that idea, it seems like it should work pretty well... first things first though we would need a decent GPS presence there so we could map things properly.
Conventional, Nuclear (Fusion or Fission, doesn't matter), Matter/Antimatter, all produce excess heat. It's just spreading it out around the ship to produce a sheild.
Has anyone considered using the excess heat to generate power?
its hard to get it to be specific to producing power... if anything it would be able to help with life support more than anything...
Redirecting excess heat from the engines that would otherwise go to waste?
assuming the engines your using produces heat...
Like tagging it onto a planet or something similar (the moon) as a sort of Assisted Gravitational Assist?
if anything i think it would work better to launch things too or from locations like that... like any type of probe or supplies or something...
not to mention we need to find out yet still if light is a particle or not
What effect would that have?
If the magnetic feild was strong enough it could heat up and vaporise meteoroids about to hit it (possibly).
as far as light being a particle, so that you could use that to move objects/reflect them (by manipulating them)
and if you could heat it up with out using TONS of power sure i dont see why not....
I dont understand what you mean?
I've an idea. What about placing powerful magnetic rings in space that accelerate the craft towards them and switch off just as the craft is about to hit, allowing the ship to be guided through the ring.
the ring would move then as it was grabbing and trying to move the ship.
try doing that under water and you will see what i mean... its a good idea but we need to figure something out with it.
I have to agree with the rest that hydroponics is our best bet for over there... but i also have to agree that we can and should use their sandy surface to produce structures there on the planet (better would be under the surface)
Here's an interesting thought. Due to the artificial magnetosphere charged particles will be directed towards the front and back of the ship (possible fuel?), releasing energy in the form of light.
If it was powerful enough you wouldn't need an airtight hull (the magnetosphere would keep the atmosphere in) allowing the possibility of custom built planets.
thats basicly the idea with earth, but the ammount of power required to do something like that would have to be literally almost insane... think something the size of the death star or perhaps the moon...
heck look at the moon, it doesn't have an atmosphere, even mars... has hardly an atmosphere... if you had a strong enough magnetosphere that would basicly either make it a planet or a moon... and you would need to be careful to not go close enough to planets to distort their orbit...
I understand what you mean by what your talking about but i dont know if it would retain such things as air or particles like that... I would immagine a forcefield like that could get that strong, but it will still be a while yet...
not to mention we need to find out yet still if light is a particle or not... by figuring that out we can do lots with that info.
What about a modified reactor, so instead of using the heat to create stea, it's open-ended, directing all the pressure and energy from the reactor outwards?
not just that but i think a neuclear reactor would work awesome out in space since you dont have to worry about cooling all that much... not to mention the ammount of power you would have for how long of a time... there are other ways but it adds mass and isn't as powerful.
it would mostlikely need to be electromagnetic so that it could be strong enough to repel.
your best bet is having the magnets arround the exterior surface of the craft then powering them outwards so it doesn't disturb any of the inner electronics...
Quick summary of the 2007 games:
NASA sponsored Power Beaming challenge: no team successfully climbed the ribbon in the allowed time although the University of Saskatchewan team came within seconds of winning.
Tether challenge: no winning team, first CNT tether entered
Lots of video of the various team entries during the competition
damn i wish they would advertise this kind of stuff more so others knew about it.. i wouldn't mind getting involved...
yes, and both ideas wouldn't work... if anything you would need to use the neuclear reactor to power something that would help propel it. a blast would need force to push you and being in space the only force you could attain is to have something in the nuke to push you. (from any style blast) so your best bet is to do a type of solar sail and project high speed particles against it of some sort. I have to admit i'm not that good with this stuff yet but i have been trying to learn more about it.
And how much fuel would it need to "park" a megaton asteroid in Mars orbit?
yea, i wouldn't trust putting a large or even smaller asteroid that near the orbit of mars...
could be a good idea, but i could see where the ball would get stuck somewhere easily or fall into some of the massive canyons that are there on the planet... our best bet would be to send multiple of them and spread them out along the surface of the planet.