You're not going to be dropping an actual D9, you're going to design something inspired by the DO and others that's optimized for the moon. An actual D9 weighs far too much for the moon and has all kinds of surfaces that couldn't handle lunar dust.

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PaulHoule 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

"Lunarized D9" was meant to be evocative. Running a diesel engine on pure oxygen (maybe lunar) and hydrocarbons from Earth with exhaust gas recirculation to keep it from burning up might be possible. But it might be more practical to build something functionally equivalent that uses batteries or fuel cells that is more circular in operation. Studies seem to show though that it is tough for ISRU to compete with shipping in resources from the most competitive market in the solar system. The dust could be a problem, it's like really sharp because it doesn't get weathered which probably makes it bad to get in your lungs.

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lostlogin 6 days ago | parent | prev [-]

You might sneak 2 D9s on if you can ship 100 ton, they are apparently 48,988 kg.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caterpillar_D9

	▲	grues-dinner 6 days ago \| parent [-]
		You can probably fit more than two Lunapillars, because the stuff they're moving masses the same, but weighs 1/6 as much, as does the machine itself. It's also always dry - no claggy clays on the moon. You may also want to source counterweight locally if you can. It'll be much less dense, but may an acceptable tradeoff to shipping tonnes of metal ballast by spaceship until you can refine out some low-grade iron from regolith. Presumably also you make many things out of materials like composites, titanium, aluminium, magnesium and abrasion-resistant materials like ceramics to cut weight and prolong part life in an aggressively abrasive environment where your Cat rep and McMaster Carr are a bit more than a phonecall away. Which will be incredibly expensive, but even using Starship, a tonne landed on the lunar surface ain't exactly cheap and every kilogram counts.