Moving 125 tons without Gravitics ?

[rust]

I have a major technical problem with my new setting, and help would be
most welcome.

Imagine a colony ship in orbit around a desert world. A part of this ship
consists of modules which will form the new colony's core after they have
been "airdropped" to the planet's surface.

While it should not be too difficult to separate the modules from the rest
of the ship in zero-g and to "airdrop" the individual modules down to the
planet, I have no good idea how they could be moved into their final po-
sitions once they have landed, because each has a mass of approximate-
ly 125 metric tons.

So the problem is: How could one move a module which is ca. 35 m long,
20 m wide and 3 m high and weighs ca. 125 tons over flat, but somewhat
rocky desert terrain with only a few all terrain vehicles and robots ?

Of course, I could always ask the player characters to find an answer, but
I think the people who planned the colony should have some "Plan B", in
case the characters lack the McGyver gene ...

 

[DFW]

How far do you have o move them?

 

[BP]

Crow bars! :lol:

(Laugh - but I moved over 10 metric tons of heavy farm machinery just today using bars... though not all at one time!)

Rails and a locomotive (dropped with cargo) would do the job - heck some locomotives alone mass 125 metric tons today!

One method is to distribute the mass while lifting high enough on articulated suspensions to maneuver the load over distance. This can be done with rollers, wheels or some such under the load. Also, a lifting frame = think collapsed collection of inverted U frameworks with wheels would winch the load suitably clear of the ground and allow movement.

May sound massive, but given the dimensions that really isn't that much of a load (< 180 kg per square meter) - robots could make leapfrogging sliders (rails and rollers) easy while winches (or even human power) are used to slowly roll the loads into place (suitably blocked for each discrete displacement to avoid 'runaway load' injuries).

Personally, I would just have numerous hydraulically deploy-able wheels built into the modules with eyehooks to support towing...

 

[DFW]

Personally, I would just have numerous hydraulically deploy-able wheels built into the modules with eyehooks to support towing...

Great idea.

 

[rust]

Personally, I would just have numerous hydraulically deploy-able wheels built into the modules with eyehooks to support towing...

Bought - thank you very much indeed for the idea.

 

[BP]

Sure thing - that was inspired by today's work (where such would have saved a ton of time and sweat)!

[P.S. - the mechanics and engineers in the party can have fun when not all the wheels/hydraulics deploy, turn properly, etc. and when structural supports built by lowest bidder snap ... :twisted:]

 

[Dave Chase]

A module which is ca. 35 m long, 20 m wide and 3 m high and weighs ca. 125 tons ...

Which works out to 0.178 metric tons per square meter or for easy math round up to to 0.2 metric tons per square meter.

Or 0.2629 PSI (round up to 0.3 PSI)

You know those over-pressure fans that are installed as part of the hostile life support system. Well it turns that there is a 3m flex skirt that unrolls from the down side edge of the module and there are manual large turn wheels mounted inside the module that will allow those over pressure fans to create an air cushion lift. Now all you need is the towing (or pushing) power to move it.

Oh, and in small print in the manual it says to try and avoid shallow valleys, they are more difficult to become unstuck than high centering.

Dave Chase

 

[phavoc]

You could also use skycranes to move it (http://skylifter.com.au/). It's still not perfected, but in theory they should work - especially if you have a little bit more tech to make your inner frame stronger and harder.

A colony ship could easily take one of these with them, and then assemble it at your landing site and start moving large objects. Lighter-than-air craft are slower than their heavier-than-air, but they are much cheaper to operate, and require far fewer resources once they are constructed (though they do have their own set of limitations).

You could easily say that instead of helium, they use hydrogen, but they also have a specialized gas similar to Halon that renders the risk of exploding in flames (ala Hindenburg) to an acceptable level.

You could also use multiple lifters, that say each one hold 25 tons, to give yourself more flexibility for moving smaller loads around your budding colony.

And all without gravitics or a TL that really exceeds ours today.

 

[rust]

Thank you, too, Dave and Phavoc.

An airship is on the colony's "to buy" list, but I did not manage to get one
into the cargo hold on the initial voyage.

[In other words: I did not include one because I want the characters to
stay on the ground during the first months of exploration and prospec-
ting, with an airship at hand they could avoid too many of the problems,
for example mountain ranges and canyons ...]

 

[alex_greene]

There's your answer to the question of how to get 125 ton objects shifted any arbitrary distance, across any terrain, without gravitics.

You do what humans have done since Cheops' day.

You call in the engineers and have them think of ways to solve the problem.

Nine times out of ten, it'll involve something simple, like wheels, rails, castors or hydraulics.

 

[locarno24]

You do what humans have done since Cheops' day.

Use hundreds and hundreds of minions?

 

[AdrianH]

The obvious answer is to air-drop it onto the right place so it doesn't need to move. :lol:

I'm not sure how much a small German church weighs, but here's how to move it:
http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-25858.html
Basically a big flat-bed truck.

 

[rust]

The obvious answer is to air-drop it onto the right place so it doesn't need to move. :lol:

I would love to see the faces of the players when I tell them that eight
huge aeroshells dropped from orbit parachuted precisely where they
were intended to go ... :lol:

 

[alex_greene]

You do what humans have done since Cheops' day.

Use hundreds and hundreds of minions?

I was thinking more along the lines of thousands.

 

[Ishmael]

If the ground is hard enough, how about rolling the module on top of bunches of round stones like on ball bearings. Just make sure the pathway is cleared of obstacles larger than the size of the rounded stones.
Of course, this assumes that the bottom surface of the modules are relatively smooth and can support the pressures involved...

An advantage to this over ordinary wheels is that it could be pushed in any direction or even spun in place without having to steer anything.
The stones would be a local resource and the robots/ATV's provide the push/tow.

The cleared hard paths would then become roads for the settlement.

 

[Imeanunoharm]

The obvious answer is to air-drop it onto the right place so it doesn't need to move. :lol:

I would love to see the faces of the players when I tell them that eight
huge aeroshells dropped from orbit parachuted precisely where they
were intended to go ... :lol:

Parachutists can land on very small targets. Surely with colonist tech they can get them to almost land on a dime, then have a few roller ball type casters deploy, bit of a shove. Whallah. :thumbsup:

 

[locarno24]

I would love to see the faces of the players when I tell them that eight huge aeroshells dropped from orbit parachuted precisely where they
were intended to go

One of the very first investments a colony should probably consider is a local (i.e. partial orbit) coverage network of beacon satellites (i.e. GPS/Galileo/Glonass equivalent). GPS-guided pallets of stuff can be hefted out the back of a C-130 at high altitude and be trusted to land inside a base's perimeter.

 

[rust]

If the ground is hard enough, how about rolling the module on top of bunches of round stones like on ball bearings.

Another good idea, thank you very much.