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> One of the problems is moon dust. There's a lot of it. If you build a big parabolic dish on the moon, you'll need some way to either remove dust or prevent it

> One of the problems is moon dust. There's a lot of it. If you build a big parabolic dish on the moon, you'll need some way to either remove dust or prevent it from accumulating in the first place. Moon doesn't have atmosphere, so once you've built the dish and cleaned it, it should stay clean unless a meteorite strikes nearby.

rtkwe 5y ago
Solar winds can also kick up moon dust. It would be a long slow process though and I think the reflector would still work under a thin layer of dust. By the time it’s a problem we’ll hopefully be there in person to either dust it off or build a bigger better one.
knappe 5y ago
One my favorite quotes from one of my astronomy professors is: "Everything has an atmosphere, no matter how tenuous." This is a reminder that he used to make sure we checked our assumptions and always considered constantly changing conditions.
aigen001 5y ago
Minor correction but the moon does have an atmosphere although it is largely negligible when compared to earth's. >"At sea level on Earth, we breathe in an atmosphere where each cubic centimeter contains 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules; by comparison the lunar atmosphere has less than 1,000,000 molecules in the same volume." >"We think that there are several sources for gases in the moon's atmosphere. These include high energy photons and solar wind particles knocking atoms from the lunar surface, chemical reactions between the solar wind and lunar surface material, evaporation of surface material, material released from the impacts of comets and meteoroids, and out-gassing from the moon's interior." Source: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LADEE/news/lunar-atmosphere.html https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LADEE/news/lunar-atmosphe... Also interesting, there is a thin film of electrostatically charged dust (regolith) that is visible across the moon's horizon during lunar sunrises and sunsets. The Apollo 17 crew drew a sketch to depict this phenomenon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_the_Moon#/media/File:Apollo_17_twilight_ray_sketch.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_the_Moon#/media/...

rtkwe 5y ago

Solar winds can also kick up moon dust. It would be a long slow process though and I think the reflector would still work under a thin layer of dust. By the time it’s a problem we’ll hopefully be there in person to either dust it off or build a bigger better one.

knappe 5y ago

One my favorite quotes from one of my astronomy professors is: "Everything has an atmosphere, no matter how tenuous." This is a reminder that he used to make sure we checked our assumptions and always considered constantly changing conditions.

aigen001 5y ago

Minor correction but the moon does have an atmosphere although it is largely negligible when compared to earth's. >"At sea level on Earth, we breathe in an atmosphere where each cubic centimeter contains 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules; by comparison the lunar atmosphere has less than 1,000,000 molecules in the same volume." >"We think that there are several sources for gases in the moon's atmosphere. These include high energy photons and solar wind particles knocking atoms from the lunar surface, chemical reactions between the solar wind and lunar surface material, evaporation of surface material, material released from the impacts of comets and meteoroids, and out-gassing from the moon's interior." Source: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LADEE/news/lunar-atmosphere.html https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LADEE/news/lunar-atmosphe... Also interesting, there is a thin film of electrostatically charged dust (regolith) that is visible across the moon's horizon during lunar sunrises and sunsets. The Apollo 17 crew drew a sketch to depict this phenomenon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_the_Moon#/media/File:Apollo_17_twilight_ray_sketch.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_the_Moon#/media/...