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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."
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.
Yeah, imagine all the species whose habitats would be destroyed
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
Did I miss something? I have a hard time believing that the microwave generators they're proposing are any more harmful than the unmitigated cosmic radiation hitting the surface every second.
antipaucity
'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
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