Don’t fuck with moon dust. No seriously, do not fuck with moon dust.
Absent any moisture or atmosphere, millennia of asteroid impacts have turned lunar regolith (soil) into a fine powder of razor sharp, glass-like particles. What’s more, the solar wind imparts an electric charge on the dust, causing it to cling to any and every surface it touches through static electricity. On earth, sand tends to get smoother over time as wind and water tumble the grains about, eroding their sharpness. Not so on the moon – lunar dust is sharp and deadly. This is Not A Good Time if you’re an explorer looking to visit our celestial neighbor.
During Apollo, the astronauts faced a plethora of unexpected issues caused by dust. It clung to spacesuits and darkened them enough that exposure to sunlight overheated the life support systems. Dust got in suit joints and on suit visors, damaging them. It ate away layers of boot lining. It covered cameras. Upon returning to the cabin, astronauts attempting to brush it off damaged their suit fabric and sent the dust airborne, where it remained suspended in the air due to low gravity.
Inhaling moon dust causes mucus membranes to swell; every Apollo astronaut who stepped foot on the moon reported symptoms of “Lunar Hay Fever.” Sneezing, congestion, and a “smell of burnt gunpowder” took days to subside. Later Apollo missions even sent a special dust brush with the team to help clean each other and equipment. We don’t know exactly how dangerous the stuff is, but lunar regolith simulants suggest it might destroy lung and brain cells with long-term exposure. 1
In fact the dust is so nasty that it destroyed the vacuum seals of sample return containers. We no longer have any accurate samples of lunar dust, “Every sample brought back from the moon has been contaminated by Earth’s air and humidity […] The chemical and electrostatic properties of the soil no longer match what future astronauts will encounter on the moon.” 2
Whats worse, the solar-charged dust gets thrown up off the moon’s surface via electrostatic forces. The moon doesn’t technically have an atmosphere, but it does have a thin cloud of sharp dust itching to cling to anything it can find.
And it probably isn’t just the moon. “A 2005 NASA study listed 20 risks that required further study before humans should commit to a human Mars expedition, and ranked "dust" as the number one challenge.” 3
The coolest solution I’ve heard about in next-gen spacesuit design is a mesh of woven wires layered into the suit. When activated, the wire mesh would form an anti-static electric field that repels dust. Quite literally a force field. 4 #astronomy#apollo#moon#lunardust
My husband had to wait for 6 years to capture this view of #TheNeedles.
Taken as the #moon set at 4.30 am last summer. This shot is only possible a couple of times each year. He almost had it in 2016 but it was slightly too breezy and the telephoto lens couldn't keep in focus.
It causes controversy as some think it's fake, I promise you that it is not. It involved much research, persistence and luck with the weather! It's the cover shot on our 2024 calendar #IsleofWight#photography
Yesterday’s annular eclipse as viewed from a city park on the outskirts of Hondo, #Texas. There was a broad layer of high clouds when we arrived but luckily they broke up & blew away just in time for the main event. Had to get up in the wee hours and drive 225 miles (362 km) west to get right in the center of the path but it was well worth it.
"You go talk to kindergartners or first-grade kids, you find a class full of #science enthusiasts. They ask deep questions. They ask, "What is a #dream, why do we have #toes, why is the #moon round, what is the birthday of the #world, why is #grass#green?"These are profound, important #questions. They just #bubble right out of them.You go talk to 12th graders and there's none of that. They've become #incurious.Something terrible has happened between kindergarten and 12th grade." #CarlSagan
INCREDIBLE images from China's Chang’e 6 lander, which landed on the far side of the moon late on June 1 and lifted off in an ascent vehicle with the first lunar samples from the far side of the moon yesterday.
Many people imagine professional astronomers hunched over a #telescope and taking notes. We no longer work that way, as light captured by the telescope is registered by complex instruments. But sometimes it's fun to use your eyes!
I took this pic a few years ago, when we removed one of the instruments of ESO's Very Large Telescope in #Chile. A screen was temporarily attached in its place, and we used it to project the #Moon and show it to everyone at the observatory
54 years ago today, the effort of thousands resulted in sending humans to orbit and land on the #moon. My dad was one of them, he worked on the guidance system of the Lunar Module. He received this desk model then, and it was passed on to me after he passed. It was in bad shape, my siblings & I did much damage to it when kids, but a couple of years ago I sent it off to a person that specializes in Lunar Module model restorations & he did a great job.
If you have the chance to see the upcoming solar #SolarEclipse on April 8, go for it! Even if you've seen an annular #eclipse or an almost total one, the difference between that and a fully total one is like night and day –– pun intended!
Here's a shot I snapped of the 2019 eclipse from ESO's La Silla Observatory in #Chile. I vividly remember seeing the #Moon 's shadow crawling towards us from the Pacific Ocean. Unforgettable!
Just in time for #Halloween, our colleague Juan Beltrán just sent us this amazing image of the #Moon rising behind ESO's Extremely Large #Telescope, currently under construction atop Cerro Armazones in #Chile
Scientists discover huge, heat-emitting blob on the far side of the moon (www.livescience.com)
Scientists have discovered an anomalous blob of heat on the far side of the moon....
India lands spacecraft near south pole of moon in world first (www.theguardian.com)
Vikram lander touches down at lunar south pole shortly after 6pm India time