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Lunar 'Lawnmower' Devised for Moon Colonists

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the no-escaping-your-chores dept.

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."

7 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. ONLY ferrous items... by cheezus_es_lard · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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?

  2. Simplest? by cratermoon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

  3. top of the head alternatives... by way2trivial · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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
  4. Only a few small problems to overcome.. by Ancient_Hacker · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Only a few glitches:
    • A lunar rover is going to move at several feet per second.
    • To melt together the surface grains at the speed of a lunar rover is going to require several megawatts of continuous power.
    • A continuous megawatt is going to require a honkin big magnetron. Like 1000 times bigger than the one in a microwave oven.
    • There's no air up there they say, so it's going to be hard to cool the magnetron. A megawatt radiator/heatsink is going to be mighty big too.
    • Where you gonna get that much power? A megawatt is over 1000 horsepower. Hard to imagine us lugging a big nitro-fueled hemi all that way.
    • Hard to compete with the cleaning power of a low-tech damp rag.
    1. Re:Only a few small problems to overcome.. by mlush · · Score: 2, Interesting
      • A lunar rover is going to move at several feet per second.
      • To melt together the surface grains at the speed of a lunar rover is going to require several megawatts of continuous power.

      If the power requirement is governed by the speed of the rover. Drive _very_ slowly. Better still build a robot do the job.

      later in TFA its says the dust can be fused with solar power which suggests the power requirements are not quite as steep as you suggest.

      "Taylor is not the only person focusing on lunar dust. Alex Freundlich, a physicist at the University of Houston, US, has come up with a different idea. Using simulated moon dust and a vacuum chamber, he has shown that it is possible to melt dust into a solid platform by focusing the Sun's rays through optical fibres."

  5. hold the phone... by skelly33 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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?

  6. Re:Damn... by Kuciwalker · · Score: 0, Interesting

    So why store it in a separate shed, rather than in a garage attached to the main living quarters?