Nuclear Subselene Tunneling - Machines on the Moon., page 1
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Topic started on 18-6-2004 @ 11:02 AM by AboveTopSecret.com

NUCLEAR SUBSELENE TUNNELING

MACHINES ON THE MOON?
From the book "Underground Bases and Tunnels", by Richard Sauder, Ph.D.

No discussion of government plans for secret tunneling projects would be complete without considering NASA's plans for tunneling on the Moon.

1980s documents from Los Alamos National Laboratory and from Texas A&M University (under contract to NASA) indicate that there are plans to use "nuclear subselene tunneling machines" to melt tunnels under the Moon's surface, to make living, working, mining and transportation facilities for a lunar colony.

A 1986 Los Alamos report calls for using a fission powered, nuclear subselene to provide the heat to "melt rock and form a self-supporting, glass-lined tunnel suitable for Maglev or other high-speed transport modes." The report recommends burrowing beneath the surface because of the harsh lunar environment. (This would apply to Mars as well.) It further mentions that the tunnels would need to be hundreds, or thousands of kilometers long..." The actual subselenes would be automatic devices, remotely operated. In 1986, Los Alamos estimated each subselene could be built for about $50 million and transported to the Moon for anywhere from $155 million to $2,323 million. The price tag may seem exorbitantly high, but rest assured that there is easily that much, and more, available in the military's "black" budget for covert projects. It should be noted that the report did not specify how the subselenes and their crews would be transported to the Moon.

A 1988 Texas A&M study outlined plans for a slightly different model of lunar tunnel boring machine. The Texas A&M "Lunar Tunneler" would employ a "mechanical head to shear its way through the lunar material while creating a rigid ceramic-like lining". Essentially, this kind of machine would be a hybrid, mechanical TBM (Tunnel Boring Machine) that incorporates elements of the nuclear powered subselene. Although the machine would be nuclear powered it would have a mechanical cutter head that would bore through the lunar subsurface. Just behind the cutter head would be a "heating section" that would "melt a layer of lunar material within the excavated tunnel to a depth of only a few inches. This molten material could then be cooled to form a rigid ceramic material suitable for lining the interior of the tunnel."

The Texas A&M designers considered a couple of different muck disposal schemes. The two variants of the first called for the muck to be transferred vertically to the surface and either dumped or "sprayed" into a tailings pile. The second concept called for the use of special, tunnel dump trucks that would carry the muck out of the tunnel and dump it on the lunar surface. The designers recommend use of a SP-100 fission reactor for power, using liquid lithium heat pipes of the sort developed by the Los Alamos National Laboratory for the nuclear subterrene.

A second Texas A&M study, released in May 1988, also recommended use of a lithium cooled nuclear reactor as the power source for a lunar tunneler. In the second tunneler design, there are no mechanical tunneling components. Instead, the cone-shaped, nuclear powered tunneler melts its way through the subsurface like a subterrene. Some of the melted rock and soil is plastered against the tunnel walls to form a glass-like ceramic tunnel lining. The rest of the melted muck (called regolith) is passed out of the back of the tunneler and then carried to the surface for the disposal by the dump trucks that follow the tunneler through the tunnel.

I don't know if there are nuclear tunneling machines secretly making permanent bases and tunnels on the moon. But NASA plans certainly give cause to wonder.

(And some of the images from the Clementine and Apollo missions of the numerous anomalous structures on the surface of moon, especially the near infrared images which Richard Hoagland believes show a network of structures both above and below the lunar surface, give even more cause to wonder.)

(reprinted with permission)


reply posted on 8-8-2004 @ 01:59 AM by Chuck Stevenson
1980s documents from Los Alamos National Laboratory and from Texas
A&M University (under contract to NASA) indicate that there are
plans to use "nuclear subselene tunneling machines" to melt tunnels
under the Moon's surface, to make living, working, mining and transportation facilities for a lunar colony.

A 1986 Los Alamos report calls for using a fission powered, nuclear
subselene to provide the heat to "melt rock and form a self-supporting,
glass-lined tunnel suitable for Maglev or other high-speed transport
modes." The report recommends burrowing beneath the surface because
of the harsh lunar environment.



Getting the equipment to the Moon is indeed a problem. After the first robotic equipemt arrives it will utillize the moon's soil to manufacture various metals and alloys. This will include making enough raw material that the next step would be setting up a machine shop with the equipment to manufacture objects for use. Once in place this would naturally lead to larger/better construction and the building of a subselene,the majority of parts would be manufactured on the moon and the radioactive parts of the nuclear plant would be shipped from earth.

(Borrowed this from another of my posts)
The nuclear powered TBM or "Subterrene" as some refer to it does not look anything like that,nor does it look, as has been said, like a "mole from hell". With a sealed power reactor like the kind on nuclear submarines it generates enough heat to melt most rock easily. Using high-temperature titanium alloy piping to conduct the lithium to the bore head, it then distributes the lithium through smaller pipes that pass the heat into the rock before being pumped back to the reactant chamber and the nuclear reactor. The lithium carries very little radioactivity and transmits almost none to the exterior environment. The lithium pipes are wrapped in insulating materials such as that used on the shuttle tiles where applicable and with other exotic thermal insulators at other points. The Bore Head is smooth and partially rotatable to allow heat distribution. Hydrostatic pressure is maintained by the constant push of the driving mechanism and the rapid cooling and smoothing of the tunnel face is handled by the shaper heads which immediately follow the bore head. Hydrostatic pressure is what causes the mid-level temperature rock to crack allowing most of the molten keff to escape. Any remaining keff is rapidly cooled and falls behind the shaper heads as debris which can easily be removed and disposed of without attracting attention. Although it is a high thermal environment the operators enjoy an air-conditioned ride in the comfort of the control cabin. As for subterranean gas/oil pockets and coal mines, before tunneling commences deep geological mapping surveys are taken to insure there will be no accidents.

The interesting thing to note is that because the Bore Head is not a mechanical head, but works through thermal conduction, it can be shaped during manufacture to the desired use of the tunnel. Therefore it could have a half-round upper section for load bearing and a stepped flat bottom for the laying of track, pipe channels or other uses.
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