3 ms·

No, no, there is no suspended dust!!! Suspension requires an atmosphere! All dust particles on Earth experience a 9.8 m/s² acceleration towards the surface of

No, no, there is no suspended dust!!! Suspension requires an atmosphere! All dust particles on Earth experience a 9.8 m/s² acceleration towards the surface of the Earth, but other forces from the moving gases in Earth's atmosphere around them can easily overcome that for a small particle. All dust particles on the Moon will experience a 1.62 m/s² acceleration towards the surface of the Moon — which is lower — but there are no gases to stop them. They are on a ballistic trajectory from wherever they they were launched. They will impact the surface of the Moon in fairly short order, unless you launch the dust at orbital or escape velocity (upwards of 2 km/s in both cases).

doodlebugging 5y ago
Even if all dust particles settle in minutes due to lack of an atmosphere, the fact that they will need to continue mining operations indefinitely to sustain their existence means that an observer on earth will likely be able to determine where they are by the permanent changes they make to the moon surface. It only requires one to monitor the moon over an extended time period. The scale of the operation will define how long that time period will be. A larger scale operation that might provide oxygen or fuel for boosters traveling away from earth might need to operate full-time for extended periods so that mining operations will be creating a cloud of dust constantly and though it may settle slowly, it will probably be detectable. Since many of the moon mining plans involve using it as a base for operations away from earth it seems unlikely that these operations would be one and done. I think that once you prove that you can satisfy that need for fuel or air to breathe in your operations and processing that it will only ramp up with time as new uses will be discovered. I could be wrong. It would not be the first time nor is it likely to be the last.

doodlebugging 5y ago

Even if all dust particles settle in minutes due to lack of an atmosphere, the fact that they will need to continue mining operations indefinitely to sustain their existence means that an observer on earth will likely be able to determine where they are by the permanent changes they make to the moon surface. It only requires one to monitor the moon over an extended time period. The scale of the operation will define how long that time period will be. A larger scale operation that might provide oxygen or fuel for boosters traveling away from earth might need to operate full-time for extended periods so that mining operations will be creating a cloud of dust constantly and though it may settle slowly, it will probably be detectable. Since many of the moon mining plans involve using it as a base for operations away from earth it seems unlikely that these operations would be one and done. I think that once you prove that you can satisfy that need for fuel or air to breathe in your operations and processing that it will only ramp up with time as new uses will be discovered. I could be wrong. It would not be the first time nor is it likely to be the last.