Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Dust Jet

Throw dust down, you go up.
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As there is lots of dust (regolith) on the moon, and it has low gravity, you could use an electrical 'pitcher' to throw it down. To get 30 lbs. of trust, you need to throw ~1/3 lbs. of regolith down at 200m/s - requiring ~300 watts.

The vehicle will be composed of 2 parts - a center, suspended part, housing the pilot, cargo, dust (changing masses) (this is done so that the center of trust will go through the center of gravity) - and an outer part holding the [fuel cell/solar panels], pitcher, legs (non-changing masses)...

The dust holding container has a slopped floor connected to a flexible (so the top can change position), vibrating (so the dust will go down it better), and rubber tube. This tube empties it's contents in the pitcher, which is on the outside structure.

The pitcher is 2-3 spinning wheels placed in close proximity, so that the dust falls between them and is accelerated out. The wheels could be in various configurations - flat faced, concave faced, padded (the better to accelerate with)...

my-nep, Jan 06 2004

(?) Picture! http://mysite.veriz...erine.holt/gal1.htm
2nd one down. [my-nep, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 06 2004]

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       Not sure I get this, the vehicle drives where, the dust is initially where, the dust is finally where?
kbecker, Jan 06 2004
  

       I think he's suggesting a way to drive the moon.
Overpanic, Jan 06 2004
  

       You'd have to use a vacuum to get the dust in the top, wouldn't you? That sucks.
Eugene, Jan 07 2004
  

       So theoretically I could use this to relocate my house to warmer climes...?
DrCurry, Jan 07 2004
  

       The vehicle dose not drive! It's more a rocket decent stage.   

       [kbecker] the dust is initialy on the ground - you then put in the vehicle (with a shovel?), get in, rev-up the pitcher, and open the dust valves - up you go. The dust ends up on the ground at high speed.   

       [Dr.Curry], theroreticaly yes, but a house is heavy and 86 second "jumps" whitch take you .75 - 1 mile each is not a good way to do it...Whitch brings me to my problem - .75 miles limits this basicicly to a recreational trick vehicle. :(
my-nep, Jan 07 2004
  

       It would have to be an ascent stage. Hard to get the moon dust to use to descend to the moon before you are on the moon.
GenYus, Jan 08 2004
  

       useful for those of us who bought ranch sized parcels of land on the moon and when we have the tech we can go live there!
Space-Pope, Jan 08 2004
  

       Yes,I quess you are right - but a decent stage is a more controled device - acents often just burn eingein for # seconds. And a decent operates and looks a lot like a acent stage
my-nep, Jan 08 2004
  

       This sounds very dusty. I guess you can't drive top down, huh.
k_sra, Jan 09 2004
  

       Why is there so much dust on the moon? Something to do with how nature abhors a vacuum?
lostdog, Jan 09 2004
  

       All this about decency and trust warms my heart. +
bungston, Jan 09 2004
  

       I would guess that there is nowhere for the dust to go. On earth, I would imagine it evetually because the silt at the bottom of lakes and oceans.
GenYus, Jan 09 2004
  

       No, it would not because the chuckers (the rapidly spinning parts are the 'chuckers', the 'feeders') are spining in oppisite directions. (also, there mass is rather low)   

       -this was in response to a (now gone) annotation about the chuckers making the vehicle spin (or something...)
my-nep, Feb 23 2004
  

       [Eugene]: you can't vacuum in a vacuum. There's no air pressure to drive your dust in.   

       Using regolith as reaction mass is a neat idea, but I would suggest using an electrostatic drive rather than mechanical pitchers. No moving parts! Stick a hose in the bottom and run your electrostatic drive in reverse to fill the tank.
BunsenHoneydew, Mar 21 2010
  

       //electrostatic// in true HB fashion I read only the title, summary and first sentence... so I thought it was already electrostatic and bunned it.... [ ]
FlyingToaster, Mar 21 2010
  

       Minor problem, regolith really doesn't flow very well, and is very very abrasive. This might work for a a single use, with very careful launching design, but would wear out very quickly if its intended for repeated use.
MechE, Mar 22 2010
  

       Why not just throw the whole moon downward using, for example, a very large spring or an inverted trebuchet?   

       It would be worth it just to hear that special mission control voice saying "Roger, commence trebuchet sequence on my mark."
MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 22 2010
  

       So long as it's a decent stage. I tried using a rubbish stage once - never again.
wagster, Mar 22 2010
  
      
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