Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
India's Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has published research that reveals its Chandrayaan-3 mission made quite a mess on the Moon.
The mission's Vikram lander touched down on August 23 without incident, becoming India's first successful Moon mission – as well as humanity's first craft to land near the lunar south pole.
[...] According to ISRO researchers, over two tons of lunar epiregolith – the top layer of Moon dust – were ejected and displaced to an area of over 100 square meters around the landing site when the spacecraft landed.
Scientists were able to compare the pre- and post-landing high resolution images from a camera residing on the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter to detect the ejecta halo. Their research, published last week in the Journal of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing, explains that the halo was created by Vikram's descent stage thrusters.
The halo was described as an "irregular bright patch surrounding the lander."
The discovery sheds some light into Moon dust material and lunar geology. It can also inform future interactions between lunar-bound astronauts and their environment.
[...] The fine yet abrasive silicate-heavy material on the lunar surface has proven to be hazardous for all 12 past humans that have set foot on the Moon.
According to the European Space Agency, exposure to Moon dust caused symptoms ranging from wheezing to nasal congestion that lasted for days in some cases, and made the inside of the Apollo 17 spacecraft smell like gunpowder.
The problem is compounded by the low gravity on the Moon, which keeps epiregolith particles suspended in air within spacecraft.
One study has already determined that "chronic or long-term effects of such dust exposure could be a problem for future missions."
But it's best to know these things now, to make preparations or amendments for future missions.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by inertnet on Monday November 06 2023, @01:31PM (6 children)
Are those Moon or Earth tonnes?
(Score: 3, Informative) by PiMuNu on Monday November 06 2023, @01:57PM (3 children)
> Are those Moon or Earth tonnes?
Both
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonne [wikipedia.org]
> The tonne is a unit of *mass* equal to 1000 kilograms
(emphasis mine)
Mass is a quantity that is independent of gravitational force.
(Score: 4, Funny) by shrewdsheep on Monday November 06 2023, @02:06PM (2 children)
But is it African or European?
(Score: 3, Touché) by PiMuNu on Monday November 06 2023, @02:39PM (1 child)
AAAAAAAAH
Squelch
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2023, @03:01PM
(pssst: you forgot the "I, I don't know that!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvSO5KEnaVE [youtube.com] )
(Score: 2) by higuita on Monday November 06 2023, @04:22PM
someone got distracted in his science classes
(Score: 2) by DadaDoofy on Monday November 06 2023, @10:52PM
Those are shit tons.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Opportunist on Monday November 06 2023, @02:03PM (7 children)
India's probe makes a mess and nobody makes a joke about how it looks like the Ganges on laundry day?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2023, @02:35PM (3 children)
Isn't every day laundry day in India? After all there are billions of them.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Monday November 06 2023, @02:37PM (1 child)
Have you taken a look at the Ganges lately?
(Score: 3, Funny) by Tork on Monday November 06 2023, @05:20PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by higuita on Monday November 06 2023, @04:24PM
no, it isn't, you also have funeral days and purifying bath days ... how do they mix those, is totally unknown to me
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Monday November 06 2023, @05:32PM
I came here for jokes about designated shitting streets.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by SDRefugee on Tuesday November 07 2023, @02:18AM (1 child)
Ummm.. I strongly suspect the 6 successful Apollo flights made equally large "messes" when they landed, and then also took off again. Let's not poop on our indian bros for this..
America should be proud of Edward Snowden, the hero, whether they know it or not..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday November 08 2023, @03:19AM
I'm still hoping for the Tesla on cinder blocks. That would signal our seriousness to return to the Moon to violate its pristine environment.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Monday November 06 2023, @03:04PM (8 children)
<no-sarcasm>
I'm sure others have thought about this problem. A lunar space habitat probably has an airlock. Once pressurized, could it possibly help to then recirculate the airlock air through a filter for a short time to remove airborne particles before opening the airlock to the inner habitat? What about moon dust stuck to the space suits? Could space suits have an outer disposable/recycleable layer? Could air jets remove moon dust from astronauts before they enter the habitat or remove their space suits?
</no-sarcasm>
Snorting moon dust is probably not a good idea like snorting dust on earth.
Of course, they could bring along decongestants to mask the symptoms. Just as a web application can fix incorrect server information by overwriting it in the browser before the user sees it.
The Centauri traded Earth jump gate technology in exchange for our superior hair mousse formulas.
(Score: 5, Informative) by ElizabethGreene on Monday November 06 2023, @04:04PM (1 child)
There are several proposals. The most ambitious ones I've seen have the body of the spacesuit remain "outside" and dock onto the habitat or rover through an airlock built in the back. I don't love this idea because the spacesuits are complex mechanisms with lots of moving parts with an inhospitable abrasive high-radiation environment outside and an inhospitable moist chemically and biologically active environment inside. You're going to want to be able to service that, in a way that having them "outside" would make quite difficult.
If we have a persistent presence with people actively living and working on the moon for years at a time, I expect we'll do most of our exterior work via telepresence. When monkeys in cans are required, we'll have "clean" and "dirty" areas with a cleaning mechanism between them and the suits will stay in the dirty area, even after they are scrubbed down. I don't think we'll ever see another "Apollo" where you're eating breakfast in the same chair where you wiggled out of the suit For cleaning, a possible solution, that would require a large pressurized volume, would be something like the high pressure air jets used for drying cars in car washes. That's hard because gravity is too slow to flush the particulates away during cleaning so the whole thing will have to be in an area with a large downdraft. If you've seen an indoor skydiving facility, something like that, upside down with human operated and manual air "jets" to blow off stuck-on dust. A more realistic small-scale solution involves having vacuum cleaners in the airlock with mechanical brushes to dislodge material.
If you want to play with this to understand the problem, get a Powder Coating Gun (Harbor Freight example, non-affiliate link) [harborfreight.com], spray down some metal with an easy-to-see color, and try cleaning it. My experience with it is it's harder than you'd initially expect, but it's not as hard as people (e.g. the ones explaining why they don't try to clean solar panels on Mars rovers) make it out to be. It's exponential: 50% is easy. 75% isn't terribly hard, 90% is hard, 95% is very hard, 98% is maximum effort, and 100% is impossible.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Monday November 06 2023, @04:36PM
I think this is why microfiber cloths are so effective at this; they acquire an electrostatic charge (?) and are manufactured with a lot of angles to grab dust particles rather than move them around. Of course at that point, you're probably introducing microplastics into the area, so there's that too.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday November 06 2023, @04:09PM
I wonder what the water solubility is like and if the dust has any redeeming industrial use. Hose them off and keep the dust for useful industrial purposes if possible.
(Score: 3, Funny) by PiMuNu on Monday November 06 2023, @04:24PM
Leave the suit in the airlock and then pull vacuum. No air, no brownian motion, no problem.
ps: they should let Random Guy on the Internet fix all of their problems. The world would be a better place.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Monday November 06 2023, @04:33PM (1 child)
Probably. But you have to wonder if any of the illegal migrant spacebacks smuggled back a few kilos of that pure uncut regolith for special occasions back home, and for legislators who like to, er, party, conveniently around the time NASA's budget appropriations are up for renewal.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Freeman on Monday November 06 2023, @05:34PM
The issue is that the space dust comes with none of the fun and all of the problems.
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: 4, Interesting) by sjames on Monday November 06 2023, @06:55PM (1 child)
Some mechanism will be needed to neutralize electrostatic charge as well. Apparently part of the problem is static charges sticking the dust to the suit.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Tuesday November 07 2023, @06:02AM
Seems like we used to flood the air with both positive and negative ions to dissipate surface static charge in the old days when our primitive solid state devices would easily be ruined by static discharge.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=anti+static++air+ionizer [ebay.com]
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by RedGreen on Monday November 06 2023, @05:40PM (4 children)
Piece of garbage presented for your reading pleasure. Well how about this one Sherlock writer the Russians destroyed their vessel in the landing attempt surely creating way more of a pollution hazard than the already existing surface that was disturbed by the Indians landing on the moon. It is not like we did not know the surface of the moon was an inhospitable place for humans or their equipment. We discovered that fifty years ago when the first samples were brought back which the moron adds to the non-anything new blindingly obvious facts already known article. Another let's pretend this is news as I need to keep my job article with something useless to be published.
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2023, @05:46PM (1 child)
I want the Moon to be so clean I can lick it.
(Score: 2, Touché) by khallow on Monday November 06 2023, @08:32PM
For me, it's not the dirt that's the licking problem here. It's the fact that the dirt is either hot enough to melt lead or cold enough to solidly freeze your entire lower jaw. There's no in between.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2023, @05:55PM
After reading this I think one of us needs more coffee.
(Score: 3, Funny) by looorg on Monday November 06 2023, @07:01PM
But those jokes almost write themselves ... Hmmm
In Putin Russia Moon collides with your probe ...
Still needs some work, better ask Bard.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Monday November 06 2023, @06:58PM
100 years from now, someone on a moonbase is trying to enjoy a television like presentation that is constantly interrupted by a floating 'not really a lawyer' urging them to call now about big settlements for moondust induced mesothelioma.
(Score: 0, Troll) by melyan on Monday November 06 2023, @09:29PM
It's a designated shitting satellite.