NASA's More Obscure Lunar Research

MickDownUnder writes "Ever wondered what the moon smells like (and no it's not like wensleydale) ? Or how good the skiing is there? If you do decide to hit the lunar slopes you may want to take a torch with you in case you run into your own shadow."

Comments

Re:Sounds like a good way to ruin your skis...

[TubeSteak]

moondust is much more abrasive than sand." Typical grains of Earth-sand measure 250 to 500 microns (millionths of a meter) across and have rounded edges. They easily slip, slide and roll. A typical grain of moondust, on the other hand, measures less than 100 microns wide and has very sharp edges. The fine grains lock together "like Velcro," says Schmitt, "and scratch anything that comes in contact with them." A Teflon ski-coating might not last long.

Sand is not nearly as abrasive, because we have things that don't exist on the moon.

Water and wind to be specific. All that tumbling around takes the sharp edges off the sand grains.

I imagine the sand/dust on Mars will be closer in quality to the sand & dust on Earth, than the Moon's.

Re:Not that I buy into the conspirary theories

[Aranth Brainfire]

Notice how the upper portions, facing the sky, of the module are dark, while the parts angled downwards are bright? It's reflecting the light bouncing off of the surface of the moon- but the surface doesn't reflect light onto itself, and thus when it is shadowed, it is rather dark.

Not exactly

[djward]

While you are correct that water will preferentially suspend finer grains, sand is commonly suspended in any flow that's fast or deep enough. Sand blows through river systems pretty quickly on geologic timescales.

Your are right to point out, though, that this eventually ends up in rock again in some form or another. And this rock gets exhumed and eroded into big particles, some of which may break further down to sand, silt, clay...

So the answer lies in the fact that on earth, additional large debris is generated along with fine debris. On the Moon, it's the same stuff sitting around getting hammered over and over by meteorites. It ends up very fine and very pointy.