3 ms·
I can't find it right now but I read a paper that said that even moderate exploration activity on the moon, let alone colonization and industrialization will ki
by Teever 4y ago
I can't find it right now but I read a paper that said that even moderate exploration activity on the moon, let alone colonization and industrialization will kick up a moderate amount of dust that will linger for thousands of years.
I don't know if this will affect moon based telescopes in a way that can't be mitigated tough.
- narag 4y agoSounds very weird. Without atmosphere the dust... just falls. No dust in the wind there, because no wind. And in the surface there is already plenty of it.
- wumms 4y agoNot supporting the "thousands of years" part of your parent's comment, but the moon gets hit by solar wind; "electrostatic charging caused the dust to levitate" [0]. Quote from "Moon Storms" [1]: "To everyone's surprise," says Olhoeft, "LEAM saw a large number of particles every morning, mostly coming from the east or west--rather than above or below--and mostly slower than speeds expected for lunar ejecta." What could cause this? Stubbs has an idea: "The dayside of the moon is positively charged; the nightside is negatively charged." At the interface between night and day, he explains, "electrostatically charged dust would be pushed across the terminator sideways," by horizontal electric fields. [0] "Moon Fountains" https://web.archive.org/web/20100319112529/http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/30mar_moonfountains.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20100319112529/http://science.na... [1] "Moon Storms" https://web.archive.org/web/20100106144102/http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/07dec_moonstorms.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20100106144102/http://science.na...
- narag 4y agoWow, so I need to add a feather duster and an... electrostatic vacuum filter to my lunar excursionist kit!