Roads - Revision history

Michel Lamontagne: /* Roads vs railways */

2025-02-19T22:09:50Z

Roads vs railways

Michel Lamontagne: /* Road building on Mars */

2025-02-19T22:06:23Z

Road building on Mars

Michel Lamontagne: /* Road building on Mars */

2025-02-19T22:04:21Z

Road building on Mars

RichardWSmith: /* Weather and other Martian particularities */ Added links.

2024-09-12T21:31:36Z

Weather and other Martian particularities: Added links.

Michel Lamontagne: /* Roads vs railways */

2023-10-06T19:09:58Z

Roads vs railways

Michel Lamontagne: /* Road building on Mars */

2023-10-06T19:06:38Z

Road building on Mars

Michel Lamontagne: /* Roads vs railways */

2022-03-02T19:07:28Z

Roads vs railways

Michel Lamontagne at 20:31, 24 February 2022

2022-02-24T20:31:06Z

RichardWSmith: /* Roads vs railways */ Added link

2021-05-21T21:37:38Z

Roads vs railways: Added link

Michel Lamontagne: /* Weather and other Martian particularities */

2020-10-27T14:07:23Z

Weather and other Martian particularities

@@ Line 23: / Line 23: @@
 ==Roads vs [[Railway|railways]]==
-Practically by definition any roadbed of sufficient quality to support [[Railroad]] tracks will also be sufficient to carry wheeled vehicles.  The rolling friction of steel wheel on steel rails is much lower than the rolling friction of rubber tires, so only on that parameters rails may be superior to roads.
+Practically by definition any roadbed of sufficient quality to support [[Railroad]] tracks will also be sufficient to carry wheeled vehicles.  The rolling friction of steel wheel on steel rails is much lower than the rolling friction of rubber tires, so on that parameters rails may be superior to roads.  However, rubber is probably not a practical materials on Mars anyway, due to it's glass transition phase at low temperature, so the material used for Martians wheeled vehicles is still under development.
 Martian cities are likely to be very dense.  This may favor rail over roads for intercity transportation, in particular if the rail is operating at Martian atmospheric pressure and the city distribution system is operating at breathable pressure, as the vehicles will not be able to serve in both environments.

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 Ground preparation for roads on Mars should be quite simple.  There is no soil on Mars, and no swamps, so the surface should be quite solid, with the exception on dunes and wind transported sand.  Rock breaking equipment, combined with crushers and graders should be capable of building good quality gravel roads quickly and cheaply.  Martian regolith should be compactable with adequate mixing of aggregate dimensions
-Rolling surfaces for higher speeds would probably need to be some kind of concrete, as asphalt would not be available on Mars.  Ice might be used as an alternative binder, but might also be subject to rapid sublimation in summer periods.  Sulfur in another possible binder, and sulfur concrete is an existing product on Earth. As the melting point of sulfur concrete is 140°C, and the Martian surface does not go over about 30°C, roads might be good applications year round.  Sulfur is common on Mars.  To produce sulfur concrete, the mixture of sulfur and regolith is heated above the melting point of elemental sulfur (115.21 °C (239.38 °F)) to 140 °C (284 °F) in a ratio of between 12% and 25% sulfur, the rest being aggregate.
+Rolling surfaces for higher speeds would probably need to be some kind of concrete, as asphalt would not be available on Mars.  Ice might be used as an alternative binder, but might also be subject to rapid sublimation in summer periods.  Sulfur in another possible binder, and sulfur concrete is an existing product on Earth. As the melting point of sulfur concrete is 140°C, and the Martian surface does not go sigificantly over about 30°C, roads might be good applications year round.  Sulfur is common on Mars.  To produce sulfur concrete, the mixture of sulfur and regolith is heated above the melting point of elemental sulfur (115.21 °C (239.38 °F)) to 140 °C (284 °F) in a ratio of between 12% and 25% sulfur, the rest being aggregate.
 ==Weather and other Martian particularities==

@@ Line 7: / Line 7: @@
 Ground preparation for roads on Mars should be quite simple.  There is no soil on Mars, and no swamps, so the surface should be quite solid, with the exception on dunes and wind transported sand.  Rock breaking equipment, combined with crushers and graders should be capable of building good quality gravel roads quickly and cheaply.  Martian regolith should be compactable with adequate mixing of aggregate dimensions
-Rolling surfaces for higher speeds would probably need to be some kind of concrete, as asphalt would not be available on Mars.  Ice might be used as an alternative binder, but might also be subject to rapid sublimation in summer periods.  Sulfur in another possible binder, and sulfur concrete is an existing product on Earth. As the melting point of sulfur concrete is 140°C, and the Martian surface does not go over about 30°C, roads might be good applications year round.
+Rolling surfaces for higher speeds would probably need to be some kind of concrete, as asphalt would not be available on Mars.  Ice might be used as an alternative binder, but might also be subject to rapid sublimation in summer periods.  Sulfur in another possible binder, and sulfur concrete is an existing product on Earth. As the melting point of sulfur concrete is 140°C, and the Martian surface does not go over about 30°C, roads might be good applications year round.  Sulfur is common on Mars.  To produce sulfur concrete, the mixture of sulfur and regolith is heated above the melting point of elemental sulfur (115.21 °C (239.38 °F)) to 140 °C (284 °F) in a ratio of between 12% and 25% sulfur, the rest being aggregate.
 ==Weather and other Martian particularities==

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 ==Weather and other Martian particularities==
-Dust accumulation from dust storms and dust devils might affect the driving surfaces somewhat.  Dust plows, as used in desert countries such as the United Arab Emirates could be used to control the dust.  Self driving vehicles using purely optical systems might have some difficulty in a dust storm, but radar based sensors might be added.  References for sensors, embedded in the roadbed, may last a long time on Mars, due to the lack of erosion.
+[[Dust]] accumulation from [[Dust storms]] and dust devils might affect the driving surfaces somewhat.  Dust plows, as used in desert countries such as the United Arab Emirates could be used to control the dust.  Self driving vehicles using purely optical systems might have some difficulty in a dust storm, but radar based sensors might be added.  References for sensors, embedded in the roadbed, may last a long time on Mars, due to the lack of erosion.
 Erosion should be practically non existent, giving roadways on Mars a very long life.  Ground loading stress from the rolling equipment should also be lower than on Earth, due to the lower gravity.  In the longer term, Mars terraformation might greatly affect an existing road network.
 Noise from rolling vehicles will be less of a problem than on Earth.  Vibration might be reduced as well, as the gravitational potential energy of a vehicle rolling on Mars will be lower than on Earth.  Kinetic energy from vehicle speed will be the same on both planets, however.
 ==Charging stations==

@@ Line 23: / Line 23: @@
 ==Roads vs [[Railway|railways]]==
-Practically by definition any roadbed of sufficient quality to support [[Railroad]] tracks will also be sufficient to carry wheeled vehicles.
+Practically by definition any roadbed of sufficient quality to support [[Railroad]] tracks will also be sufficient to carry wheeled vehicles.  The rolling friction of steel wheel on steel rails is much lower than the rolling friction of rubber tires, so only on that parameters rails may be superior to roads.
 Martian cities are likely to be very dense.  This may favor rail over roads for intercity transportation, in particular if the rail is operating at Martian atmospheric pressure and the city distribution system is operating at breathable pressure, as the vehicles will not be able to serve in both environments.

@@ Line 25: / Line 25: @@
 Practically by definition any roadbed of sufficient quality to support [[Railroad]] tracks will also be sufficient to carry wheeled vehicles.
-Martian cities are likely to be very dense.  This may favor rail over roads for intercity transportation, in particular if the rail is operating at Martian atmospheric pressure and the city distribution system is operating at breathable pressure.
+Martian cities are likely to be very dense.  This may favor rail over roads for intercity transportation, in particular if the rail is operating at Martian atmospheric pressure and the city distribution system is operating at breathable pressure, as the vehicles will not be able to serve in both environments.
 [[Category:Surface Transportation‎]]
 [[Category:Surface Transportation Networks]]

@@ Line 14: / Line 14: @@
 Erosion should be practically non existent, giving roadways on Mars a very long life.  Ground loading stress from the rolling equipment should also be lower than on Earth, due to the lower gravity.
-Noise form rolling vehicles will be less of a problem than on Earth.  Vibration might be reduced as well, as the gravitational potential energy of a vehicle rolling on Mars will be lower than on Earth.  Kinetic energy from vehicle speed will be the same on both planets, however.
+Noise from rolling vehicles will be less of a problem than on Earth.  Vibration might be reduced as well, as the gravitational potential energy of a vehicle rolling on Mars will be lower than on Earth.  Kinetic energy from vehicle speed will be the same on both planets, however.
 ==Charging stations==
-Vehicles on Mars may have batteries or be methane/oxygen powered.  It seems likely that all martian vehicles will be electrical, unless methane is found in an exploitable form.  And even then, the energy required to produce oxygen may make the existence of the methane rather moot.  Vehicles on Mars will probably charge at solar powered charging stations, analogous the the ones presently being added to the Earth road infrastructure.
+Vehicles on Mars may have batteries or be methane/oxygen powered.  It seems likely that all Martian vehicles will be electrical, unless methane is found in an exploitable form.  And even then, the energy required to produce oxygen may make the existence of the methane rather moot.  Vehicles on Mars will probably charge at solar powered charging stations, analogous the the ones presently being added to the Earth road infrastructure.
 ==Self driving vehicles==
-All vehicles on martian roads may be self driving.  As there is no real weather on Mars, and the infrastructure will be new, it should be possible to incorporate self driving aids into the roadways.  This could mean that truck driving never becomes a profession on Mars.  This also reduces one of the advantages of rail transportation, as self driving vehicles only require maintenance personnel and therefore do not have high personnel costs.
+All vehicles on Martian roads may be self driving.  As there is no real weather on Mars, and the infrastructure will be new, it should be possible to incorporate self driving aids into the roadways, if necessary.  This could mean that truck driving never becomes a profession on Mars.  This also reduces one of the advantages of rail transportation, as self driving vehicles only require maintenance personnel and therefore do not have high personnel costs.
-==Roads vs railways==
+==Roads vs [[Railway|railways]]==
-Practically by definition, any roadbed of sufficient quality to support railway tracks will also be sufficient to carry wheeled vehicles.
+Practically by definition any roadbed of sufficient quality to support railway tracks will also be sufficient to carry wheeled vehicles.
 [[Category:Surface Transportation‎]]
 [[Category:Surface Transportation Networks]]