Trans-Arctic Ocean Shipping Considerations

If annual decrease in the area of the Arctic ocean icepack at some future point brings development of direct shortest distance east-west hemisphere ship traffic of containers, passengers etc from rail heads in Europe and North America on the Arctic Sea littoral perhaps Alaska and Canada each will have rail roads to points south. One hopes that non-polluting electric systems are advanced in advance to create less habitat displacement.

I have wondered if Arctic sea-floor pipelines could be made to carry cargo with self-driving cargo modules through the pipe. Self-driving vehicles obviously have great potential for new transportation infrastructures across not only the north, but in dangerous areas of the world with a profusion of improvised exploding devices. It might also be possible to have self-driving ferryboats wait for passengers on seldom used routes, or for buses to self-drive as-needed when enough passengers arrive.

Obviously military uses for self-driving vehicles and weapons platforms exist, yet it is in trans-Arctic and Lunar transport infrastructures that the most interesting possibilities can be found.

N.A.S.A. is looking into lithium and gas sulfur hexafluoride to power space vehicles (ref S.A. Nov 2015 page 24), yet it might be that low temperature superconductors will allow mass transit highways to be placed on the moon with some conducting wires dropped into place.