Transportation to and from Earth would include the transport of important goods and materials such as hydrogen and nitrogen. It would also provide a means for the citizens of Earth to leave their homes and come to the new world of space.
Present transportation costs are extremely high from Earth. Since Earth's gravity is so strong, it costs from $1000 to $10 000 per pound just to get to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). In order to colonize space, these costs must be greatly decreased. Someone needs to develop a space craft that will reduce this immense cost, while at the same time being careful not to destroy the Earth's atmosphere with the large number of launches required.
Once a better Earth/LEO shuttle is made, I suggest the transportation system work like this. The shuttle would be similar to an airplane. There would be transport shuttles, and passenger shuttles. These would be launched into LEO, where they would meet with a space station, something like one of today's airports. The shuttle's external fuel tank would be saved for further use. (See "Human Element," "Emergency Criteria") At the space station, people would wait for shuttles made especially for zero-gravity use to take them to the Moon, and space colonies such as Terra Nova. Once there, they would dock at the central hub, and proceed into the colony.
The most important things to be transported from the Moon would be shipments of materials and supplies for the colonists. Since this transport would be a long, ongoing affair, it is important to reduce shipping costs from the Moon.
Mass Launcher
The Moon is airless and has low gravity, so rockets are not necessary to lift materials and supplies off the Moon. A mass launcher, or mass driver as it is sometimes called, would be the best transport system between the Moon and orbiting stations and colonies. It can be used instead of rockets.
Mass launchers look like long monorails stretched out for miles along the surface of the Moon. Along its length are magnetic coils through which metal capsules, or "buckets" could pass. The buckets would probably be about 20cm in diameter, and weigh about 10kg. These buckets would be sped up down the line of the mass launcher by the magnetic force created when an electric current is discharged throughthe coils. The electric force could come from "free" solar energy. The magnetic forces at work could keep the bucket suspended without friction on a flight path through the centre of the coils. Lunar escape velocity (2.5km per second) could be achieved this way. Then, the bucket would be launched off the Moon carrying its load of lunar soil, materials, or supplies where it would be captured at or near a space colony to be processed and used.
The advantage of using a mass launcher for transporting materials to Terra Nova is that it would be cheap and easy. The solar energy used to power the launcher would essentially be free, and no rocket fuel or pilots would be needed. The mass launcher is an efficient transportation system and would be best for long-term transportation needs.
Mass Catcher
Once you had a mass launcher, you would also need a mass catcher to catch the buckets being launched off the Moon. It could be near the space colony, or at some other point where materials could be transported to Terra Nova. Some research has suggested L2 as the best place for mass catchers, but I don't see why one could not also be located nearer to Terra Nova at L5.
A mass catcher is an active device used to capture payloads of lunar material being shot off the Moon by the mass launcher. The actual catcher would be a thin, light net, probably about 10m² in area. This net would be manipulated by 3 cables which would be able to position it anywhere within equilateral triangles. These triangles would travel on cables wound on reels that move on three close looped traps. Each side of the triangles would be 1km long. The triangles would move on the cables in the same direction as the payloads to provide counterthrust when they enter the catcher.
A rotary pellet thruster could be used to position the catcher so it is always facing the incoming payloads. It is a heavy tube that rotates quickly and shoots small pellets of rock out of it to make it move. The launcher would use about 5% of its payload simply as propellent for the rotary pellet thruster.
The mass catcher would come equipped with radar to detect an incoming payload 2km away. The net would then move to intercept it. The net and reels would decelerate the payload so it could be released into a storage bin located by the tracks. Then, people from the colony could bring the bin back to Terra Nova and unload its goods for use in the colony.
Transportation within Terra Nova is also important to consider. She would have a volume of about 0.1km³ (100 000 000m³), and people would have to move about this area somehow.
The transportation in the spokes leading from hub to ring, and hub to hub wouldconsist of two elevator/trains that will be suited to transport both humans and materials. One train would go one way, while the other would go the opposite way. In the spokes leading from hub to hub (about 400m in length), the gravity would be the same for the entire ride. That is, there would be zero-gravity travelling the entire way from hub to hub. From hub to ring and ring to hub would, however, be a different matter.
Travelling from the hub to the ring or vice versa would be a very strange sensation. The spokes of the two smaller rings would be about 350m in length, and the spokes of the larger ring would be about 800m in length. Since the spokes of the rings are also rotating like the rings themselves, you would begin to feel more or less gravity on your ride to and from the hub. So while you may begin at the hub feeling weightless, and go "up" in the spokes, by the time you are halfway there, you would begin to feel like you are going "down" (in the zero-gravity conditions of space, there is no such thing as up or down). This can be disconcerting, so the tracks of the elevator/train transport systems would be located on the edge of the spoke, with the seats perpendicular to the ring and the hub. The seats going towards the ring would face away from it, and the seats going towards the hub would face into it. This way, people would not feel like they were falling face first into one of the four "train" stations on the rings. It is easier to go towards a weightless environment face first then an environment with a full gee of gravity. Still, going up and down the spokes might seem more like an amusement ride than an ordinary form of transportation.
The longest circumference of Terra Nova would be only 6.28km. That means the longest a person would ever have to travel is 3.14km to get to any destination inside Terra Nova. Therefore, I do not think any form of transportation is needed in Terra Nova itself. People could walk to their destinations. However, elderly, injured, and sick people could be given access to motorized wheelchairs.
When people reach one of the four parks along the circumference of Terra Nova, they would simply take an elevator ride down to where the park is located and continue walking on one of the paths there until they reach the next set of elevators which would bring them up again into the residential/commercial area of the colony. If someone wanted to walk the entire distance around the colony without these interruptions, that could be done too. A walking path at the same level as the four parks would wind around the entire colony.