TUNNEL BORING MACHINES ARE MASSIVE PIECES OF EQUIPMENT -- TRAIN-SIZED MOBILE FACTORIES DESIGNED TO DIG INTO THE EARTH. COINCIDENTALLY, THEY'RE ALMOST PERFECTLY SHAPED TO FIT ABOARD A ROCKET TO MARS.
Full-scale TBM is way too heavy for the initial colony. Even on Earth, TBMs make economic sense only if you need to bore multi-kilometer long tunnels.I imagine much smaller machines will be used to build first Mars underground habitats. Perhaps these machines will be more versatile, not specialized only for tunneling work.
Something like a roadheader would be more ideal for use on Mars then a TBM since it's much simpler and lighter and you would have more flexibility in the shape of the chambers that can be created.
Quote from: Patchouli on 01/08/2017 06:03 pmSomething like a roadheader would be more ideal for use on Mars then a TBM since it's much simpler and lighter and you would have more flexibility in the shape of the chambers that can be created.So that's interesting - could a roadheader like that one be used for mining purposes, for raw material extraction?Can this thing be used for more than just tunneling?
Roadheaders were initially used for coal mining, so hell-yeah. Tunnels for the O-Train in Ottawa were done using three 135 ton roadheaders, and they were used for parts of the Big Dig..
The cutter above is often used to cut an arched tunnel, like a quonset hut, but there are other heads used for profile cutting such as squaring off. There are vertical versions for boring shafts. The head motors are hydraulic, so power can be whatever you can run the pump with; electric, or an IC using ISRU methalox. Possibly alcohol + GOX using a different ISRU process.
Quote from: docmordrid on 01/12/2017 08:40 amRoadheaders were initially used for coal mining, so hell-yeah. Tunnels for the O-Train in Ottawa were done using three 135 ton roadheaders, and they were used for parts of the Big Dig..Wow, that's a lot of mass to send to the Moon or Mars.I wonder if the thing could be redesigned to shave weight off it?Additionally, making it all-electric power supply would also be required, as well as robotic/tele-operated/semi-autonomous.And for the lunar environment, there's that pesky angular dust which always messes things up.If you had something that big, and were using it all the time, you'd probably be able to expand your interior living space pretty rapidly from tunneling/burrowing.I wonder what the ideal layout would be for a burrow?