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Lunar 'Lawnmower' Devised for Moon Colonists
moon_unit_alpha writes "Future Moon residents may have to mow the lunar lawn. New Scientist Space reports that a planetary geologist has come up with a way to prevent Moon dust from sticking to space suits, getting into seals and damaging electronic and mechanical equipment - the lunar lawnmower. The mower could be hauled behind a lunar rover, generating microwaves that cause iron particles in the dust to clump together."
I thought part of the reason we want to go to the moon is to get away from the damage we've done to our own planet. So, the first thing we do when we go up there is start irradiating the ground so the dirt behaves the way we want it to...
Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
But that would be harming the Moon's environment! What's the emote for rolling eyes?
Coding with assembly is like playing with Legos. Coding an application in assembly is like building a car with Legos.
Lawrence Taylor Inc - Innovation for the future in an extraordinarily boring sort of way.
Wouldn't you want it in front of the rover?
useless sig advice - Read Nabokov.
Has NASA contracted with John Deere to build them?
If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
I'm waiting for somebody to somehow work this into a "welcome our overlords" comment.
So, instead of cutting chucks out of the moon and send them back here for grating onto our favourite mexican meals, we're just going to grate it ON the moon? With lawm mowers?! Oh dear...
plus it makes a kiler scrambled egg, and warms your innards all in one step, all for the low low price of $19.95
[font size="2"]numbers represented are for illustrative purposes only, and actually are in 000,000's.[/font]
"In place of whirling blades, however, the machine would use microwaves to force dust particles to clump together."
My cat desperately needs one of these.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
I was thinking about sumitting it, but why the hassle - small chance it will get accepted
:)
about water on Mars. The problem is that temperature and pressure on Mars are oscilating around water triple-point, it means that there is a chance that you will get liquid/ice water at night, but it will vaporize during the day (speaking about non-polar areas, in polar areas water can stay in ice form). Colonists are more likely to settle near equator due to temperature and (maybe) resources. If we consider pressure also, then hellas planitia is very tempting.
And it looks like there is a workaround for problem with constantly vaporizing water - use salt water instead
I took this piece from http://marsnews.com/
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#\ @ ? Colonize Mars
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and I thought I had it bad when I had to go out, pull the lawnmower from the shed, gas it up, work to crank-start it, and then push it around for a half an hour, emptying the bag as necessary.
So, kids of the future will complain about having to clean up, provision the spacesuit, suit up, run diagnostics on the suit, activate a tracking beacon, depressurize through the airlock, walk/hop over to the seperate hazardous equipment dome, repressurize, run diagnostics on the 'moon mower', perform maintenance if necessary, un-umbilicle the device, push it into the airlock, re-seal the spacesuit and run diagnostics, depressurize, and only then do they get to pushing the thing around the surface for a half an hour...
Somehow I don't think that, "back in MY day!" stories will work on those kids. *sigh*
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Maybe I've read "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" too many times, but why would people be spending time on the surface if they did not need too? Wouldn't it make more sense to be spending more time below the surface?
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Meanwhile, if they can manage to grow corn on the Moon, there shouldn't a problem with Moonbase Movie Night.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Unfortunately I can't imagine this working. The moon isn't _entirely_ made up of ferrous metals, so the dust must have some composition that is not ferrous, and therefore is not affected by the magnetic field. Is possible ionization of the other dust molecules enough to keep them out of suspension? I mean, even if the clumps trap some dust, more will be around to float, right?
This is just what our astro-men need: a lawnmower for their astro-turf. Will you be among them?
I would be more fun to fry it instead.
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
As an aspiring moon colonist I'd always wondered about this, now I can sleep easy at night with the *final* barrier to space colonisation crumbling in front of my very own slashdot blurred eyes.
Having to microwave the lawn once a week (or more after it has been raining) seems like a small price to pay to be able to jump 20 feet into the ai--er, I mean space.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
It amazes me that so many allegedly "educated" people have fallen so quickly and so hard for a fraudulent fabrication of such laughable proportions. The very idea that a gigantic ball of rock happens to orbit our planet, showing itself in neat, four-week cycles -- with the same side facing us all the time -- is ludicrous. Furthermore, it is an insult to common sense and a damnable affront to intellectual honesty and integrity. That people actually believe it is evidence that the liberals have wrested the last vestiges of control of our public school system from decent, God-fearing Americans (as if any further evidence was needed! Daddy's Roommate? God Almighty!)
.. the next time you're out in the backyard exercising your Second Amendment rights, the liberals will see it! These satellites are sensitive enough to tell the difference between a Colt .45 and a .38 Special! And when they detect you with a firearm, their computers cross-reference the address to figure out your name, and then an enormous database housed at Berkeley is updated with information about you.
Documentaries such as Enemy of the State have accurately portrayed the elaborate, byzantine network of surveillance satellites that the liberals have sent into space to spy on law-abiding Americans. Equipped with technology developed by Handgun Control, Inc., these satellites have the ability to detect firearms from hundreds of kilometers up. That's right, neighbors
Of course, this all works fine during the day, but what about at night? Even the liberals can't control the rotation of the Earth to prevent nightfall from setting in (only Joshua was able to ask for that particular favor!) That's where the "moon" comes in. Powered by nuclear reactors, the "moon" is nothing more than an enormous balloon, emitting trillions of candlepower of gun-revealing light. Piloted by key members of the liberal community, the "moon" is strategically moved across the country, pointing out those who dare to make use of their God-given rights at night!
Yes, I know this probably sounds paranoid and preposterous, but consider this. Despite what the revisionist historians tell you, there is no mention of the "moon" anywhere in literature or historical documents -- anywhere -- before 1950. That is when it was initially launched. When President Josef Kennedy, at the State of the Union address, proclaimed "We choose to go to the moon", he may as well have said "We choose to go to the weather balloon." The subsequent faking of a "moon" landing on national TV was the first step in a long history of the erosion of our constitutional rights by leftists in this country. No longer can we hide from our government when the sun goes down.
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
It's a clever idea and all, but wouldn't it be simpler to just throw out some tarps?
OK, they'd need a bit more than some blue plastic, but really, I'm sure enough lightweight, ultraviolet resistant, tough modern technical fibers material to cover a fair space could easily be taken up for the weight and size of this "lawnmower" idea.
Let's hope it has a key ignition... pulling one of those stupid cords can't be fun in zero-g...
Oh, apparently I just failed planetary geography 101 there.
Pining for the fjords
Will the astronauts have to put out the papers and the trash as well to get their spendin' cash? Or is that overtime?
Stick Men
Where the first few people to walk on the moon that messy?. I suppose the price of a good cleaning service up there is pretty high so I can understand it. There's real potential to make some serious money offering the first lunar cleaning service. Damn, no one steal my idea please.
I used to have a better sig but it broke.
The patent will expire long before there's a market for this product.
And can you imagine the blade hitting that monolith?! You thought sprinkler heads were bad!
Disconnect your television. Do your own research. Draw your own conclusions. They're probably lying. Don't be a sheep.
It's the same guy that thought of the seedless watermelon, so you gotta listen to him.
Me, I'm just waiting for the infomercials. I HAVE TO KNOW what they're going to offer if I call within the next 10 minutes.
1- a satellite(s) that melts the regolith in a X meter wide path as it orbits.. as it cools, it will solidify - a use for SDI 'star wars' technology
pros- makes the entire surface dust free-- cheap by comparison energy is free out there...
cons- time consuming- ruins the surface for study by combining asteroids with lunar material-ya gotta do it all or it'll just spread around.
2- ultrasonically vibrate any surface (suits, domes, locks on the surface) exposed to the regolith at a really high frequency, so that it doesn't stick (ever put dust on a paper and make patterns? by shaking the paper?)
3- does regolith have any sort of charge? can you spray a suit with negative ions/ apply a battery to the metal to repel material? run a current through the metal to change the degree of attraction?
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Now you tell me we'd hafta cultivate the lunar dust? Thanks a lot!
I read
Future Moon residents have high incidents, of brest, and testicular cancer.
-manno
'Lunar lawnmower' to deal with Moon dust menace
I've felt menaced by Moon Dust for years. Thank God our government's clumping technology will finally put an end to my sleepless nights
i got ball this is my adress 108 20 37 av corona come n do it iam give u the sidekick so I can hit you wit it
M-O-O-N, that spells old joke.
...the Russians just use a pencil.
I just know that the Patent Trolls over at Tidy Cat Industries are going to claim this infringes on their patent. Prepare to pay royalties for mowing your lunar lawn...
In space, no one can hear you mow...
Microwaves? Forget that. Just use a giant parbolic solar mirror to melt the moon's surface where you want to settle.
Is this another example of our tax dollars at work?
01/20/09
That's great. We can't even sort out the problems we have on this planet, let alone with each other, and we're wasting valuable resources (and time) on something hypothetical - so that we can go and fuck that up too? How messed up is this? Priorities, people.
I was born in the wrong time. To the future with me.
To me, this thing should be called a "lunar vacuum cleaner".
It's job is to get rid of dust, and it operates in a vacuum (well at least more vacuum than on earth)
There is really nothing resembling a "lawn mover" here.
This still won't solve the immigrants from the Xenoplxyt slum in Mars city from letting their lunar lawns grow over. First it starts with not mowing, and then it's lunar rovers and landing craft on concrete blocks in front of the habitat.
Next thing you know they'll be bringing solar powered magnetometers into our schools. Kids these days...
...but they can't invent something better to va-poo-rize cat waste.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
"Back in MY day we had to make our capsule's carbon dioxide filters out of our own spacesuits, daggnabbit!"
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
The moon has NO atmosphere to speak of. It is constantly bombarded by forces more destructive than microwaves for God's sake. Know what your talking about before you start running your mouth. Just like a left winger....
[microwaves] just don't have the same impact.
... he said "impact" ...
huh huh huh
Infuriate left and right
A HA HA HA. LIBERALS!
You /.ers are SO hilarious with all your FUNNY FUNNY FUNNY JOKES! HA HA HA !
Kill yourselves immediately.
If the surface of the moon was fused into a "glassy substance", just imagine the reflection we would get from the moon at night! Talk about Global Warming!
Generation Trance: What generation are you?
Wouldn't putting it on the "dark side" hurl the moon toward Earth, assuming an explosion large enough to shake its orbit?
Why does this cut&paste job keep getting modded up? I mean I'd be different if like the "In Soviet Russia..." jokes or "In Korea, only Old people..." or any of the myriad of other cookie cutter karma katchers, something new was added every time, but this thing seems like it's on some kind of {if isinsummary("moon") then post(weatherbaloonrant())} script.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
All he needs is for someone to make lunar lawns and Taylor will make a fortune...
Strength through redundancy and over-design
Perhaps parent poster meant it to be a joke, but that's EXACTLY how the microwaves over lunar dust idea came to be.
Some guy took a pinch of moondust and put it in a microwave oven. It melted. EUREKA!
I think I've just found my new sig.
nuke the moon
the ability to use microwaves to solidify lunar dust into a "glassy substance" sounds much more interesting than merely dust control to me - what about construction? Couldn't the stuff be used to build structural walls and such for habitats rather than effectively patting it down into place on the ground?
It was long suspected that the dust could be used to make concrete for building, but up to now it had been assumed that we would have to take something to the moon with us in order to mix with the dust to make a good, working cement.
With this revelation it would seem that there is no need to bring any raw materials with us in order to build basic architectural structures, would it not? Heck, one of the references linked even indicated that a scientist has managed to achieve a similar result using nothing more than focused sunlight (heat).
It seems to me that all we ought have need of is some sort modular form-casting materials to contain the structural "walls" or what-have-you while the dust is collected and packed into place within the form and then a means of focusing solar energy onto the form to raise temperature levels until such time as the dust fuses together. Remove the form and wallah: moon walls.
Why is there no mention of this possibility in the article when it seems to be the next natural step in the train of thought?
Shouldn't this really be called a "Moonraker"?
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
> cause iron particles in the dust to clump together
.. or future EPA .. have to say about this?
What does the EPA
-David
is that our equipment and technology is all computer-controlled, and when the Lunar Lawnmower Man decides to take everything over it will be chaos.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
unfortunately where I live most homes don't have basements and even if they did, it wouldn't matter. I'm the dad.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
So thats what kids are calling it these days?
That article gave me a great idea. I spent a few hours tinkering in the garage and came up with an idea that's going to revolutionize lunar living. And because I use all petrolium products to build my units, I can sell them for much less that the lunar lawn mower. The prototypes will be more expensive but I think I can get the price of the mass produced product down to $12,854.95 a piece. Certainly more practical than a lunar lawnmower. I now present THE LUNAR DELINTER!
http://images.redial.net/lunardelinter.jpg
I mean, why can't we just use herds of lunar sheep?
Never look down your nose at others. Someday, someone is bound to see your boogers.
We've got to install microwave mowers. Custom lunar deliver-y-y-y! Forget all these dust particals, get a nice shiny surrrrface!