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Lunar Dust: A Major Worry for Moon Visitors
smooth wombat writes "Wired has a story which talks about a danger to possible future inhabitants of the Moon that is rarely brought up: the highly abrasive lunar dust. Unlike Earth, the Moon has no erosive capabilities to smooth the edges of rocks or dust. As a result the lunar dust has arms that stick out, like Velcro, and sticks to everything. As the astronauts who walked on the moon found out, the dust scratched lenses and corroded seals within hours. Some of the particles are only microns across which means once they get into your lungs, they stay there. This could cause a lung disease similar to silicosis."
Sorry, I accidently RTFA.
The Apollo astronauts couldn't help but get covered in the stuff as they struggled to stay upright on the moon's surface, where the force of gravity is one-sixth of that on Earth. Later, they tracked the dust back into their space capsules and inhaled it when they took off their helmets.
It won't happen again.
riding round the world on an old motorcycle
This dust could get everywhere. Sooner or later you take off your space suit, you track dust into the biodome on your boots, you park the moon buggy in the garage, etc. Dust just a few microns has the potential to work its way all through air circulation systems, etc. It'll be a nightmare to deal with.
To speak practiclly, it becomes a problem when the dust gets in the building. Unless, you want to walk around and work with a mask or filter over your face.
Don't mod this guy up. He is a whore for his site. Just look at his history, all he does is post worthless articles that are semi-ontopic that link to his site.
And he would have known that if he had RTFA. And the person who modded him up would have known that he didn't RTFA if he had RTFA.
How we know is more important than what we know.
This is this the dumbest comment I've read today.
breathing a vaccum
'dust' in the air
Anything with air, can't be a vacuum.
try { Signature mysig = new CleverAttempt(); } catch(NonCleverSignatureException e) { postanyway(); }
Lunar dust is reported to smell like exploded firecrackers, according to a 2002 interview with John Hirasaki, an Apollo recovery technician:
Google cache here.
Move step 4 to step five and replace with 4) Run through standard De-contanimation procedures. Sheesh its not that hard.
We should have a betting pool on how many people point out that you're not supposed to breathe outside on the moon. Thanks folks, I never knew that. Seriously, the stuff sounds like playa dust to me, and anybody who's ever been out on the playa knows that you track that stuff in with you all the time. If lunar dust is half as pervasive as playa dust, it's going to take serious decontamination to keep it outside.
To be fair, the Caribs were (at the time of Colombian Contact) engaged in a genocidal war against the Arawaks.
The Arawaks were the former inhabitants of the Greater Antilles, and were (primarily) a fairly peacefull people that utilized a hybrid hunter-gathering/agrarian system of nomadic farming on the islands.
The Caribs were invaders from the mainland, probably from what is modern day Brazil. They moved up the island chain starting in modern day Trinidad, killing and eating the Arawaks.
While not canibals as a primary food source, the Carib religous thoughts about the consumption of an enemy and the rights of war weren't well received by the Europeans, who set about dispatching them with some urgency.
Killfile(TGK)
No trees were killed in the creation of this post. However, many electrons were inconvenienced.
Also, with these particles getting caught in the lungs, isnt the whole "lack of oxygen on the moon" probably, a bigger breathing threat?
... you are fine in the water, but you are still going to get wet when you get out of your gear.
Walking on the lunar surface with protective gear prevents this problem until you go inside, and remove the said gear. While you are removing the gear, you are currently breathing in the particles. Think of it like wearing a dry suit while scuba diving
Yay. Another +5 Insightful that didn't RTFA. :-\
You seem to have your pressures mixed up. The pressure inside the cabin of an airplane is substantially *higher* then the air pressure outside. (IIRC, the difference is about 15 lbs / in). That would tend to make the cabin door want to burst open, as opposed to staying closed.
Notwithstanding, the article doesn't really discuss the concern of dust getting into the suit. The concern is dust on the suit, which then comes into the lunar facility with the astronaut. The astronaut (lunarnaut?) then takes off his helmet inside the facility and BAM! Lunar dust can now conceivably get into his lungs.
The bigger problem is any lunar dust that makes its way back to the spacecraft. When the craft goes back into space and into zero-g, the particles which were resting on the ground are now floating in the air.
I currently have no clever signature witicism to add here.
Well for one, they don't use their actual space suits; they are special suits that look/work identical to actual suits made especially for the neutral buoyancy tank.
Gone!
What do you think the astronauts were breathing in their capsule? Sure , it might not have had the exact mix of gases of earths atmosphere but it mixed with O2 which is the most reactive gas in our atmosphere and if it doesn't react with that I don't think anyone will be losing too much sleep over what happens if you mix it with nitrogen or argon. As for it not being in contact with the lungs , well how do you think the astronauts smelt it without beathing in? Perhaps you should read the article first hmm?
Logically it shouldn't be like on the Moon since Mars has an atmosphere - it even has dust storms.
But this is one more remainder that decision taken some time ago by NASA to go first to the Moon and then to Mars makes no real sense. This was discussed widely, also on /. but one of the reasons was that Moon would serve as a testing ground for solutions to be used on Mars. As this example shows Moon may require totally different habitats, suits and equipment - in some aspects even up to much higher standards than for Mars.
"America" is not a continent. Brazil and Canada are not in "America", they are in "South America" and "North America" respectively.
Additionally, your definition of "the rest of the world" must not include any countries in the Americas besides America. I know several Mexicans, Canadians that would take offense to being called "American".
There are no tiger attacks in my area and it's all because this rock I'm holding keeps the tigers away.