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Polar-Liner

Giant Ocean-liner Sized Sled Slides Across Arctic/Antarctic Ice, Pulled by Tow-line from Distant Winch
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Okay, due to some of the useful critiques made of the Giant Landship idea, I've decided to modify it into a Giant Sled idea, that gets pulled by a long tow-line extending to it from a winch located many miles ahead in the distance.

It's still going to be giant and the size of an ocean-liner, but instead of rolling, it's going to slide across the ice. It would be used to travel across the thick ice in the Arctic/Antarctic regions.

The largely flat-bottomed hull would be made of ultra-hard ceramic for maximum hardness & abrasion resistance.

The front-bottom of the hull would have a gradual gradient to enable our giant sled to gradually surmount any frontal obstacles, snow drifts, etc and squash these down under its weight.

The entire sled platform will be pulled from the front by a cable extending to it from a Winch Station dozens of miles away. There will actually be multiple such Winch Stations which our giant Polar Liner sled will travel to, as a series of stops along its journey.

While being constructed of lightweight materials (carbon composites, foamed alloy components, etc) the sheer size of our Polar Liner means that it will unavoidably be very heavy. Therefore as it travels across the frozen wasteland, it will automatically be compacting the ground below it, creating a broad flat superhighway channel in its wake. Other smaller accompanying sled vehicles will also be traveling in that wake, like a caravan.

Repeated voyages can be made back and forth across the same routes, thus further compacting and solidifying these routes over time, especially with further snowfalls, etc.

In this way, a giant frozen-canal/superhighway network system can be built across the Antarctic for heavy freight transportation.

sanman, Aug 31 2025

San Francisco Cable Cars https://www.youtube...watch?v=0Lc-7enEIRQ
[sanman, Sep 01 2025]

Canada's Ice Roads https://www.youtube...watch?v=aoUcs46Elm0
[sanman, Sep 01 2025]

[link]






       This seems very similar to the Halley only on a larger scale. It also seems very destructive of an unspoiled environment, inviting a trail of similar destructive behemoths.
xenzag, Sep 01 2025
  

       @ xenzag:   

       Halley is a stationary base made of modules standing on legs. Here, we're talking about a moving platform, and it would be of very large size.   

       As for destructive, it doesn't have to really be so. It would just be moving across an ice track route which could be no wider than a modern superhighway. Most superhighways have to worry about cleaning snow & ice, but here we're making use of snow & ice to lubricate our journey.   

       You've heard of Ice Road Truckers, haven't you? So this would be like that, but using a remote winch (or 'wheelhouse') instead of keeping an engine onboard.
sanman, Sep 01 2025
  

       And then we get to run our jet skis on the newly-created trails! The establishment of a ring road of some description is not a bad idea for an ecosystem that may, at some point, be budding subtropical and require the lack of interior roads to thrive.   

       [I want to go but I'm having a problem with the vibrating, groaning and scraping resounding throughout the huge vessel. Don't get me wrong; I want to go anyway.]
minoradjustments, Sep 01 2025
  

       //Halley is a stationary base made of modules standing on legs.// Halley gets towed along to move it to new locations.
xenzag, Sep 01 2025
  
      
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