LUNAR SHUTTLE
                                                             By Dave Dietzler 2008

When industry is built up at Newton Base the time will come to expand to other parts of the Moon.  There are deposits of volcanic glass in the Sulpicious Gallus region the contain sulfur, chlorine, zinc, copper, gallium, nickel and iron.  It seems that mining here and roasting elements from volcanic glass and condensing them would be great boon to the Moon.  Sulfur and chlorine can be used for extracting aluminum, titanium and purifying silicon. Magnesium can be alloyed with zinc and aluminum with copper.  The Mare Imbrium at the base of the Apenines would allow easy access to mare and highland regolith.  Aristarchus is the brightest and one of the youngest features on the near side of the Moon.  Radon might be “burping” out there and this means there could be uranium decaying deep beneath the Aristarchus plateau.  Radon decays into lead, so there might be mineable lead there too.  The Marius Hills features over 200 low volcanic domes that might contain CO gas that could be a massive carbon source that we could drill for.

We will travel from Newton Base with machines and robots made on the Moon to these locations and establish new mining bases.  We will also travel to 139 W and 101 E at about the same latitudes as the above mentioned locations to build solar power plants for 24/7 power on the Moon via superconducting cable.  We will use rockets that travel on sub-orbital trajectories and solar powered railless trains.

Rockets or “Moon Shuttles” will also haul payloads from LEO arriving in LLO down to the lunar surface.  Since the electrically driven cargo vessels from LEO won’t need to haul propellant for landing their functional cargo mass will be larger and the cost of transporting it to the Moon will be lower.

Below is a diagram illustrating partly how a Moon Shuttle is put together.
Steering is accomplished by thrust modulation of four small motors just above the main engine.  This rocket uses pressure feed instead of turbopumps for simplicity and lunar manufacturing practicality. Also, silane burns to silica and water vapor.  Silica deposits will ruin pump turbines that feed fuel and oxidizer into rocket engine and drive hydraulic pumps for gimbal operation.  Thus, pressure feed and steering motors seem like the best way to make a rocket that runs on silane and oxygen.