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Simulations show lander exhaust could cloud studies of lunar ices:
A new study led by scientists at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, shows that exhaust from a mid-sized lunar lander can quickly spread around the Moon and potentially contaminate scientifically vital ices at the lunar poles.
Computer simulations of water vapor emitted by a 2,650-pound (1,200-kilogram) lander—about a quarter of the dry mass of the Apollo Lunar Module—touching down near the Moon's south pole showed exhaust takes only a few hours to disperse around the entire Moon. From 30% to 40% of the vapor persisted in the lunar atmosphere and surface two months later, and roughly 20% would ultimately freeze out near the poles a few months after that.
Those results, published online Aug. 11 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, show that researchers' interest in studying the native ices in the Moon's poleward craters—ices that may date back several billion years—will need to be carefully considered during increased efforts to return humans to the Moon.
[...] "The interesting thing about Parvathy's work is that it shows very well that the effect, while small and temporary, is global," said Dana Hurley, a planetary scientist at APL and coauthor on the study.
Space organizations can expect volatile gases to significantly coat the lunar surface at well over 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the landing site.
The residue exhaust does eventually fade away, but Hurley points out that current plans for human lunar exploration mean it will happen more frequently and with much heavier landers.
"The results of this study drive the critical need to conduct the research we want to do about the lunar atmosphere and volatile deposits while they are relatively pristine," Hurley said.
Journal Reference:
Parvathy Prem, Dana M. Hurley, David B. Goldstein, et al. The Evolution of a Spacecraft‐Generated Lunar Exosphere, Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets (DOI: 10.1029/2020JE006464)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 17 2020, @12:28PM (2 children)
Lunar Warming?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 17 2020, @01:04PM (1 child)
I think it's great. One person can pollute the entire lunar landscape, from pole to pole, with little effort. On earth, it takes billions of us working together to pollute the planet so thoroughly.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 17 2020, @09:04PM
No, just one Grand Old Party.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Ken_g6 on Monday August 17 2020, @01:56PM
The Moon recycles 20% of the hydrogen from landers that land on it!
You just have to be careful when doing geology.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Monday August 17 2020, @02:26PM (5 children)
Just dust off the top layer when you collect your samples. In person, by an astronaut living and working on the Moon.
Meteoroid/asteroid impacts presumably do the same thing, spreading a lot of dust.
Moon-landing Starships will reduce the exhaust issue by placing smaller thrusters mid-way up the rocket instead of using the Raptor engines to land.
If it still matters, construct a nice flat concrete landing zone near one of the poles. Maybe assign an asstronaut to sweep it off once in a while with a Moon broom.
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(Score: 4, Insightful) by NotSanguine on Monday August 17 2020, @03:24PM (2 children)
And/or use some sort of unmistakable, not-found-in-nature, molecular marker in the material that forms the exhaust so we'll know it when we see/analyze it.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Monday August 17 2020, @08:19PM (1 child)
Like what?
Any chemical marker you might add to the fuel will likely be completely destroyed by the high temperatures in the rocket combustion chamber, and even if it survived it wouldn't incorporated in the water or CO2 in the exhaust anyway. Not t mention the damage it could do a reusable engine that's designed to burn as clean as possible.
Assuming a Starship-style methalox engine, you could theoretically use Oxygen-17 or 18 instead of the common 16 to leave a (relatively) clear indicator of its origin - but that will increase the propellant mass and thus reuduce the rockets performance, as well as making the propellant outlandishly expensive to acquire, dramatically increasing the cost of a flight that will (hopefully) already be dominated by fuel costs.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Tuesday August 18 2020, @12:14AM
A good question.
Perhaps modified concentrations of oxygen, carbon or hydrogen isotopes. Better yet, some combination thereof which doesn't occur naturally.
And you don't have to use enormous amounts of various isotopes either. Just enough to make it *different* from what occurs naturally.
Since the average ratio of deuterium to hydrogen is ~1 to 26 million [wikipedia.org], doubling that amount would create an unusual isotopic ratio, yet increase the mass of the methane reactant an insignificant amount. This could also be done with oxygen and/or carbon isotopes too, also without impacting reactant mass significantly.
That said, no one is really going to do anything about the "contamination" of the lunar surface by rocket exhaust.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 17 2020, @09:08PM (1 child)
Easy-peasy. I often go out in the winter and brush the road dirt off of the snow to get it back into pristine condition.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday August 18 2020, @01:03AM
Does your Moon base get a lot of snow?
Just drill past the top layer, whatever.
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(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday August 17 2020, @03:28PM (3 children)
We'll just have to use a green organic soy-based parachute
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday August 17 2020, @03:56PM (2 children)
Splashdowns only work on the wet parts of the moon that we already visited in the Apollo program.
Sea of Tranquility
Ocean of Storms
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday August 17 2020, @05:33PM (1 child)
Splashdowns on the Moon are more like what you get when you combine something going really fast and brick wall.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday August 18 2020, @12:59AM
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 17 2020, @08:41PM (1 child)
If humanity ever builds industrial facilities on the moon, air pollution will be a serious problem. That is, polluting the hard vacuum environment of the Moon with air. The Moon has no meaningful atmosphere of its own, because it doesn't have enough gravity to hold onto gas over geological timescales. But it does have enough gravity to hold onto gases on human-scale timelines. Manufacturing in a vacuum is one of the things that the Moon is supposed to be good at.
Instead, it would be better to do that manufacturing on asteroids, where even Ceres can barely hold onto air for even a short time, and smaller asteroids not at all.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday August 18 2020, @01:11AM
Only if the lag to Earth market doesn't matter to you. Shipping stuff from the Moon to Earth is around 3 days (for the Hohmann transfer orbit). Shipping stuff from Ceres would be around a year and that's only if you're at the proper position relative to Earth (which would happen about once a year).
And Lunar vacuum doesn't need to be that good. If you need that pure a vacuum, even Ceres will hold on to gases too long. Instead, just make a better vacuum in the usual way. It's still less effort than doing it on Earth.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 18 2020, @05:42AM
Marissa Van Eck FAKENAME NIGGER CUNT Azuma Hazuki: So "that was NOT me posting" https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=37033&page=1&cid=985641#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] which YES, you said when you LIBELED me publicly BEFORE it with YOU saying "So that's a "yes" to schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder and a "no" to "am taking meds for said disorder" LIBELING ME then...?" per YOUR https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=37033&page=1&cid=982854#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] you stupid pitiful FAKENAME fuck online LIAR piece of fucking SHIT NIGGER?
OR
Was it when I GOT YOUR REAL NAME & found you are a satanist/anti-god HERE https://redeeminggod.com/sermons/luke/luke_7_36-50/#comment-269796 [soylentnews.org] also which most ALL you "LEFTIST" LOSER weirdos usually are (which YES, in THIS other exchange "Why do you assume that you finding discussion threads on other sites with me in them will scare me?" quoted from https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=38720&page=1&cid=1028402#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] you DID admit FINALLY to saying it was you - ESPECIALLY AFTER dozens of doctors RECENTLY seconded me on Hydroxychloroquin + Zinc (& Vitamin D3 imo along w/ other things I noted that are anti-viral + antibacterial like RAW GARLIC too)).
Do me a favor - DENY ANY OF THOSE, please & I will continue PROVING YOU ARE A NIGGER SHITBAG LOSER, devil... as I already DID here https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=38720&page=1&cid=1028211#commentwrap [soylentnews.org]
The TRUE BEAUTY of SATANIST FUCKS like YOU (antigod assholes)? TRUTH & FACT DESTROYS LIBELOUS DEVILS LIKE YOU - just like I did you & OTHER AHOLES who doubted what I wrote on what is NOW PROVEN TRUE by DOCTORS, admitted in mainstream media etc. (as I showed in those links' exchanges above easily) & especially LATELY by DOZENS of doctors (I have proof from pros - NOT LIBEL like you did to me PUBLICLY & I can still FRY YOU FOR IT FUCKER, live in fear fuck) MINUS any psych pros backing you.
SAY 1 THING, YOU STINKING LIBELOUS NIGGER FUCK & I will CONTINUE LEVELLING YOU PUBLICLY with facts - not libel as you tried on me, stupid "Marissa von DUMBO", lol - please, say 1 thing & the BEATING on you, PUBLICLY will continue in this thread where you will have a HELL of a TIME "downmod burying it" via downmod brigades doubtless ONLY yourself via multiple sockpuppet accounts etc. (downodding to HIDE it? FORGET IT vs. me - everyone sees you @ it now, lol - thanks, just as I SAID "your kind", demonic SWINE/antigod LOSERS, always do).
WHY SHOULD YOU FEAR LIBELING ME PROJECTING IT NOW, TRYING TO HIDE IT TOO?
TOUGH HIDING YOU LIED about LIBELING ME, especially via INHERENTLY DAMAGING STATEMENTS libeling me as you did see GOLDWATER RULE below too fuckface CUNT you are (wikipedia proof https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=37033&page=1&cid=985366#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] & you said "No jury or judge would back it" here https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=37033&page=1&cid=985353#commentwrap? [soylentnews.org] Ok - like I said earlier here which you TRIED TO DOWNMOD HIDE as I knew you HAVE to (everyone sees it anyhow) - TRY ME FUCKER - say 1 thing you COWARDLY STUPID LITTLE FUCK & we'll SEE what happens to you, fuckface CUNT you are).
As I said "DO YOU WANT TO BE SUED" for breaking the GOLDWATER RULE? See here again https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=37033&page=1&cid=985329#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] for YOUR (& everyone else's) reference of YOUR LIBEL of myself
APK
P.S.=> Oh, I am going to have a FIELDDAY on YOUR ASS fucker - catching you not ONLY IN LIES above, but also in the fact you are a GODLESS fucking LOSER - come on, say something, question the above where you LIED fucker ("it was not me saying it" but it WAS in those links calling me a nutcase essentially when YOU SAID YOU DID NOT (because it IS grounds for SUING THE LIFE OUT OF YOUR WORTHLESS ASS because your statements are NOT BACKED BY actual psychiatric pros in professional psychiatric grounds LIBELING ME)) - oh, you are NEVER going to LIVE THIS DOWN & believe you me - I am going to MAKE SURE you don't - live with your HUMILIATION loser... apk