Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
NASA Needs Fake Moondust By The Ton
NASA needs more moondust. And not just a few sterile baggies of moondust. NASA engineers need tons
of it - or a suitable simulant.
NASA has lots of new plans for lunar gadgets and lunar equipment, given the new plans to return to
the Moon. Since we've been there before, and we've gathered samples, we know what a problem moondust can be.
(Moondust close-up)
The lunar soil (or regolith) covering the Moon's surface is a complex material that is sharp and abrasive - with interlocking glass shards and fragments. It is a powdery grit that gets into everything, jamming moving parts and abrading spacesuit fabrics. It can also get into living spaces, where it is impossible to brush off, due to the ease with which lunar dust picks up electrostatic charges. And it can even irritate the lungs of astronauts. Astronaut Jack Schmitt had a case of "lunar dust hay fever" during his stay on the Moon.
For testing purposes, noting else will do. And supplies of the real thing, brought back during the Apollo program, have run out. "We don't have enough real moondust to go around," says Larry Taylor, director of Planetary Geosciences Institute at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. To run all the tests, "we need to make a well-qualified lunar simulant."
An early substitute, JSC-1, was developed in 1993. It consisted of basaltic vocanic cinder cone deposits from a quarry near Flagstaff, AZ. It's replacement, JSC-1a, comes in three different varieties based on grain size: fine, moderate grain and coarse grain. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) is working on three new simulants that will provide fake moondust from three different lunar areas; two will represent mare and polar highlands regions, while the third will represent the sharp, glassy, jagged regolith that is the worst that the Moon has to offer.
The Moon offers too many distinct varieties of regolith to economically simulate each one.
We will develop root simulants and manufacture specific simulants from these, but also enable investigators to enhance the products as needed," Carol McLemore, program manager at MSFC, stated. "I liken this process to baking a cake: depending on the type of cake you want, you need certain ingredients for it to come out right and taste right. Getting the recipe right whether for a cake or lunar simulants is critical."Source materials for simulants will probably come from many diverse locations in Montana, Arizona, Virginia, Florida and Hawaii. For example, the mare simulant will use ilmenite, a crystalline iron-titanium oxide. Once NASA understands how to make the simulants, and determines the best composition, certification procedures for vendors will ensure that fake moondust meets NASA standards.
More lunar dust news:
- Skiing That Soft Lunar Powder
Skiing on the moon? Heinlein thought you could do it, and so do the Apollo astronauts. - Lunar Dust Fountains Due To Electrostatic
Charges
Science fiction author Hal Clement predicted in a 1956 short story that electrostatically charged lunar dust particles might actually suspend themselves above the surface: - Moon Dust Substrate For Solar Panels
Simulated moon dust has been used to make the substrate of a solar cell.
Read more about fake lunar dust at NASA.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 12/30/2006)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 1 )
Related News Stories - (" Space Tech ")
Will Space Stations Have Large Interior Spaces Again?
'They filed clumsily into the battleroom, like children in a swimming pool for the first time, clinging to the handholds along the side.' - Orson Scott Card, 1985.
Reflect Orbital Offers 'Sunlight on Demand' And Light Pollution
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors...'
Chrysalis Generation Ship to Alpha Centauri
'This was their world, their planet —
this swift-traveling, yet seemingly moveless vessel.' - Nat Schachner, 1934
The First Space Warship For Space Force
'Each of the electrical ships carried about twenty men...' - Garrett P. Serviss, 1898.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
The Zapata Air Scooter Would Be Great In A Science Fiction Story
'Betty's slapdash style.'
Thermostabilized Wet Meat Product (NASA Prototype)
There are no orbiting Michelin stars. Yet.
Could Crystal Batteries Generate Power For Centuries?
'Power could be compressed thus into an inch-square cube of what looked like blue-white ice'
India Ponders Always-On Smartphone Location Tracking
'It is necessary... for your own protection.'
Amazon Will Send You Heinlein's Knockdown Cabin
'It's so light that you can set it up in five minutes by yourself...'
Is It Time To Forbid Human Driving?
'Heavy penalties... were to be applied to any one found driving manually-controlled machines.'
Replace The Smartphone With A Connected Edge Node For AI Inference
'Buy a Little Dingbat... electropen, wrist watch, pocketphone, pocket radio, billfold ... all in one.'
Artificial Skin For Robots Is Coming Right Along
'... an elastic, tinted material that had all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.'
Robot Guard Dog On Duty
I might also be thinking of K-9 from Doctor Who.
Wearable Artificial Fabric Muscles
'It is remarkable that the long leverages of their machines are in most cases actuated by a sort of sham musculature...'
BrainBridge Concept Transplant Of Human Head Proposed
'Briquet’s head seemed to think that to find and attach a new body to her head was as easy as to fit and sew a new dress.'
Google's Nano Banana Pro Presents Handwritten Math Solutions
'...copy was turned out in a charming and entirely feminine handwriting.'
Edible Meat-Like Fungus Like Barbara Hambly's Slunch?
'It was almost unheard of for slunch to spread that fast...'
Sunday Robotics 'Memo' Bot Has Unique Training Glove
'He then started hand movements of definite pattern...'
Woman Marries Computer, Vonnegut's Dream Comes True
'Men are made of protoplasm... Lasts forever.'
Natural Gait With Prosthetic Connected To Nervous System
'The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain...'
