Lunartrak: Lunar Rail Systems for High-Mass General Transport, Dust Mitigation, and Power Conveyance

A sustained lunar economy and scientific exploration operation requires efficient lunar surface transport that is capable of moving crew and cargo. However, lunar regolith is a dusty and abrasive granular material that is challenging for wheeled mobility. We propose a lunar rail system based on robotic assembly of structural, footing, and rail modules. Such a system can significantly reduce the cost of transport between frequently accessed sites (habitation, landing, power generation, in-situ resource extraction sites) while eliminating associated disturbance of lunar dust. In this paper, we discuss design requirements of lunar rail systems in relation to Earth rail systems. We then describe the robotic rail system subsystem and a concept of operations, along with a range of example mission scenarios. Integration with ISRU is also discussed. Finally, we model expected downmass of a rail system compared to a rover system for different mission classes, varying payload masses, distance, and system architectures.