OT: Let's all go to the Moon...

Arkcon · #1 December 5th, 2003, 01:33 AM

Yeah, I heard this story on slashdot -- and I thought it was pretty cool to hear.

I have a question, before the dialog over there on /. degenerated into politics, someone mentioned that the moon's regolith made it past the joints in the Apollo spacesuits and began to pinch the astronauts.

That sounds ridiculous to me, those suits should have been air-tight. Right? Or am I wrong? Anyone even hear of this?

Cyrien · #2 December 5th, 2003, 01:39 AM

Some of the dust on the moon is smaller than air molecules.

Phoenix-D · #3 December 5th, 2003, 02:16 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Cyrien:
Some of the dust on the moon is smaller than air molecules.

Um, you sure? Most air is N2- it doesn't get a whole lot smaller than that. Especially for something recognizable as dust.

Cyrien · #4 December 5th, 2003, 02:58 AM

You are right. I was posting based on something I thought I remembered reading a while back. Couldn't find anything about that now. Did find these that explain it. Apparantly the dust is very fine and abrasive and gets in the joints of the suits and other equipment and causes them to cease to work and jam up.

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/res...0/pdf/7004.pdf

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0007/21moondust/

[ December 05, 2003, 00:58: Message edited by: Cyrien ]

narf poit chez BOOM · #5 December 5th, 2003, 06:25 AM

and an appropraite webcomic page for it from the very cute Count Your Sheep: http://sheep123.keenspace.com/d/20031003.html

Suicide Junkie · #6 December 5th, 2003, 04:26 PM

Well, the dust could easily have gotten into external portions of the suits. Any parts outside of the air-vaccuum barrier could get clogged up.

Also, the dust they would have tracked inside could then have gotten in when they remove their helmets.

Baron Munchausen · #7 December 5th, 2003, 08:11 PM

Dust seems to be a major problem on both the Moon and Mars. It makes you wonder just how practical any 'permanent' presence will be on either. With the Moon I guess you can rely on the industrial might of your earth-based infrastructure to send lots of replacement equipment. That will greatly increase the cost of the permanent presence, though.

On Mars the dust might even be chemically corrosive as well as very fine and gritty. I'd be really cautious of trying to land people there until many robotic probes had landed and returned samples for study from various areas. The smart thing to do would be to send manned missions to orbit Mars, only landing with robots -- which could be controlled from orbit with much better precision than the 45 minute delay from Earth-based control.

[ December 05, 2003, 20:18: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]