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posted by Fnord666 on Monday August 17 2020, @10:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the sunny-with-a-chance-of-clouds dept.

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)


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 17 2020, @08:41PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 17 2020, @08:41PM (#1038036)

    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.

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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday August 18 2020, @01:11AM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday August 18 2020, @01:11AM (#1038152) Journal

    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.

    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.