[meteorite-list] simulant moon dust wanted by NASA ADD delete

From: Dave Freeman mjwy <dfreeman_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Nov 8 11:49:51 2006
Message-ID: <455162B7.8050505_at_fascination.com>

Dear NASA (if your out there);
I have a few hundred pounds of quality gray to white weathered
anorthosite for sale. Make offer.
Dave F.

Darren Garrison wrote:

>On Tue, 7 Nov 2006 10:02:38 -0800 (PST), you wrote:
>
>
>
>>Dear List,
>> I don`t how much the government is wasting on
>>stimulant(sic) dust but they are searching for more.
>>Here is their link:
>>
>>http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/moon_dirt_050124.html
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>I see your "wanted-- fake moon dirt" and raise you an "unwanted-- real moon
>dirt"
>
>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15607792/
>
>Lunar explorers face moon dust dilemma
>Scientists are grappling with how to handle dust for next moon shot
>By Leonard David
>Space.com
>Updated: 3:12 p.m. ET Nov 7, 2006
>
>GOLDEN, Colo. -- The Moon is dusty, grimy, and potentially hazardous to your
>health.
>
>Ultra-tiny dust grains can gum up the works of vital hardware on the Moon. And
>there's also a possible risk to health from gulping in the lunar dust--a
>toxicological twist to "bad Moon rising."
>
>Thanks to the Apollo program there's firsthand knowledge about the Moon being a
>Disneyland of dust.
>
>Moonwalkers were covered from helmet to boot with lunar dust. Also tagged as the
>"dirty dozen," astronauts on the various Apollo missions worked long hours in
>the lunar environment, setting up science equipment and collectively bagged 840
>pounds (382 kilograms) of rock and other surface material for shipment back to
>Earth.
>
>As NASA planners gear up to replant astronauts on the lunar surface before 2020,
>scientists and engineers are grappling with how best to certify a safe and
>productive stay for 21st-century moonwalkers.
>
>Mining specialists, researchers, entrepreneurs, and NASA managers took part in
>the eighth Space Resources Roundtable, held here Oct. 31-Nov. 2 at the Colorado
>School of Mines and in collaboration with the Lunar and Planetary Institute in
>Houston, Texas.
>
>"First and foremost is just the fact that the dust just sticks to everything,"
>said Jasper Halekas, a research physicist at University of California, Berkeley
>Space Sciences Laboratory in Berkeley, California.
>
>>From gauge dials, helmet sun shades to spacesuits and tools, the
>"stick-to-itness" of dust during the Apollo missions proved to be a noteworthy
>problem, Halekas reported. Most amusingly, he added, even the vacuum cleaner
>that was designed to clean off the dust clogged down and jammed.
>
>Halekas recounted a technical debrief by Apollo 17's Gene Cernan after his 1972
>Moon voyage.
>
>Cernan said that "one of the most aggravating, restricting facets of lunar
>surface exploration is the dust and its adherence to everything no matter what
>kind ... and its restrictive friction-like action to everything it gets on." The
>astronaut added: "You have to live with it but you're continually fighting the
>dust problem both outside and inside the spacecraft."
>
>Electrically active
>Although the lunar environment is often considered to be essentially static,
>Halekas and his fellow researchers reported at the workshop that, in fact, it is
>very electrically active.
>
>The surface of the Moon charges in response to currents incident on its surface,
>and is exposed to a variety of different charging environments during its orbit
>around the Earth. Those charging currents span several orders of magnitude, he
>said.
>
>Dust adhesion is likely increased by the angular barbed shapes of lunar dust,
>found to quickly and effectively coat all surfaces it comes into contact with.
>Additionally, that clinging is possibly due to electrostatic charging, Halekas
>explained.
>
>"I think it would behoove us to understand the lunar dust plasma environment as
>well as possible before we try to come up with detailed dust mitigation
>strategies," Halekas told SPACE.com. "This would mean characterizing the dust,
>electric fields and plasma around the Moon and understanding how they interact."
>
>Halekas said that he advocates science experiments either in lunar orbit or on
>the Moon's surface -- preferably both -- in order to gauge the problem.
>
>"At this point, we know so little about the near-surface electrodynamic
>environment and its effect on dust that we can't do much more than conjecture
>and try to predict the most likely scenario," Halekas said.
>
>Just knowing that the dust is there, Halekas added, tells us that we need to
>deal with it. "But without more detailed knowledge than we currently have, I
>think we're handicapped in coming up with effective mitigation strategies."
>
>Astronaut health
>It is imperative that today's return-to-the-Moon planners recall experiences
>from the Apollo era, said Larry Taylor, Director of the Planetary Geosciences
>Institute at the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of
>Tennessee in Knoxville. One problem that was not well anticipated was the
>ubiquitous, adherent, abrasive, and floating dust problem, he advised.
>
>Taylor emphasized that the most critical effect of lunar dust, however, may be
>on astronaut health.
>
>With each Apollo mission to the Moon, Taylor said that astronauts remarked about
>the "gun powder" smell when they took off their helmets inside their lunar
>lander after climbing back in from a moonwalk.
>
>Several astronauts reported respiratory or eye irritation. It was evident that
>there was something unusual about the lunar dust, Taylor pointed out. "We've got
>one hell of a lot of it that's going to be dangerous on the Moon."
>
>Taylor flagged the possibility that ultra-small particles of the lunar dust are
>capable of moving from human lungs directly into the blood stream. Moreover,
>these fine particles consist almost entirely of glass containing myriads of
>nanophase metallic iron--a constituent that might interact with a person's
>hemoglobin and spur oxygen-depravation effects.
>
>One of the most essential tests to be performed with a first lunar lander in the
>near-term, Taylor observed, is the chemical reactivity of pristine lunar dust in
>the size range that can be inhaled by lunar visitors.
>
>Dust-busting idea
>Arguably, framing the Moon as some sort of toxic wasteland would be a bit of a
>stretch.
>
>Countering the pervasive nature of the dust, however, will take some doing --
>specifically if the lunar landscape is to be reworked with resource-processing
>paraphernalia and dotted with living quarters.
>
>Habitats will need to be overpressurized to account for inevitable leaks,
>especially around entrances, Taylor suggested. Fine particles of dust suspended
>in electrostatic levitation around the Moon, he pointed out, would need to be
>dealt with so as not to muck up lunar-based astronomy of the surrounding cosmos.
>
>But then there's the ultimate in dust-busting ideas. Enter the suck-it-up and
>deal with it Lunar Soil Magnetic Collection device -- the LSMAC for short.
>
>Working with Taylor on the dust mover scheme is Benjamin Eimer, a postdoctoral
>researcher at the University of Tennessee.
>
>LSMAC draws upon the elemental iron particles -- literally sucking up the lunar
>soil similar to your autumn leaf sucker, Eimer said. This can be done in similar
>fashion to the way maglev trains and coil guns work, making use of
>electro-magnets to pull an object along.
>
>A magnetic system like LSMAC at work on the Moon, Eimer said, would not only
>pull the iron-tainted soil down a tube but also effectively capture the dust as
>well. The operation of this "coil vacuum" equipment on the Moon is foreseen as a
>kind of electronic conveyor belt.
>
>Conceptually, Eimer and Taylor reported that a lunar surface-mining operation
>could use the LSMAC to gather and transport soil -- plus dust -- across stretches
>of moonscape to processing plants. This method of handling and collecting lunar
>surface materials would help keep in check the stirring up of dust in the
>process.
>
>"The lunar dust gets into everything and it is harmful in just about every way,"
>Eimer concluded. "That's the take home message ... some form of mitigation, of
>controlling the dust on the Moon is necessary."
>? 2006 Space.com. All rights reserved. More from Space.com.
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Received on Tue 07 Nov 2006 11:53:11 PM PST