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."

Comments

in related story - salt water on Mars

[Janek Kozicki]

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/

Re:Lunar Dust

[DrEldarion]

Dust here is mostly things that are or once were alive, carbon-based. Skin cells, hair, that sort of thing. The dust there is mineral, with parts of it being conductive. Besides being more abrasive, the conductivity can really screw with electronics.

Re:Lunar Dust

[fish waffle]

can someone please give a brief explanation of what the big deal is with lunar dust?

It's very very fine dust; think of how plaster dust manages to get everywhere, even clogging vacuums.

It's also apparently quite sharp (what with the general lack of erosion up there), and thus it manages to not only get everywhere, but also be irritating when it does. For the google-impaired.

Re:Lunar Dust

[Billosaur]

For background: What a Little Moon Dust Can Do

The Moonwalkers found that the stuff clung to everything and on contact with the oxygen in the Lunar Module (LM), gave off a smell like gunpowder, due to the lack of normal oxidation on the Moon's surface.

The stuff was also fine and gritty and was like liquid sandpaper. It would scratch camera lens and wore away at lunar geology equipment. It could also cause fittings to not seat properly, a very important problem if you're counting on the seals on your spacesuit to remain airtight.

Of course if we're going to have people up there more or less permanently, they're going to working in the stuff every day, and the wear and tear on equipment may lead to some dangerous situations. The last thing an astronaut needs to have happen is to lose suit integrity when he/she is nowhere near shelter.