[meteorite-list] Anybody want to melt a lunar in the name of science?

From: Darren Garrison <cynapse_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 11 Feb 2007 17:55:45 -0500
Message-ID: <qk7vs2hl3vcefeqt2do17ksfh68bqceli8_at_4ax.com>

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1171187725201140.xml&coll=2

Scientist microwaves moondust, cooks up intriguing possibilities
Sunday, February 11, 2007
John Mangels
Plain Dealer Science Writer

Lawrence Taylor is a self-professed "lunatic," one of the original,
moon-obsessed scientists who worked with the Apollo program during the 1960s.

Many are retired, and some have died, but Taylor, now 68 and director of the
University of Tennessee's Planetary Geosciences Institute, presses on, even
though for a long time it seemed humans would never return to the moon. His
recent discovery may literally pave the way for future lunar astronauts.

One day, he was chatting with his old friend Harrison Schmitt, the lunar module
pilot on the last moon mission, Apollo 17. Taylor was recounting his work with
the tiniest lunar dust grains, those 20 microns and smaller.

 Moon dust has a curious property: Though it's the product of rocks on the lunar
surface that have been smashed to bits by meteorite strikes, the dust has way
more elemental iron in it than do the rocks it came from.

The reason? The meteorite impacts vaporize some rock components. When the gas
condenses, a chemical reaction leaves behind tiny particles of pure iron that
collect in the pulverized dust. The solidified dust, which resembles melted
glass, is shot through with nanometer-sized iron, like grains of pepper in an
ice cube.

Scientists first realized this in the 1970s when they studied the dust samples
the Apollo astronauts brought back. "Then for 30 years," Taylor said, "we forgot
it."

In the mid-'90s, Taylor was re-examining the dust and noticed the smallest
grains, with their patina of concentrated iron, were most susceptible to a
magnet. When he described his findings to Schmitt, a lightbulb went off.

"He said, You remember all the problems we had on the moon?' " Taylor recounted.
It was the smallest dust grains that gave the Apollo astronauts the most
trouble; the moonwalkers couldn't brush them off their spacesuits.

"He said, If we only had a brush with a little magnet on it, my God, what we
could have done,' " Taylor recalled. "I said, Oh, wow!' "

Magnetic brushes and air filters were possibilities, but Taylor didn't stop
there. The iron grains had given him an idea. Maybe you could melt moon dust.

Using an old microwave his lab mates brewed tea in, Taylor zapped a pinch of
moon dust. The iron grains absorbed the energy and dissipated it as heat. "Hot
damn, it melted," he said.

By focusing the microwaves, "with less than 100 watts, I could take lunar soil
from room temperature to 1750 degrees Centigrade within 10 seconds. You can't
boil water that fast."

When they cooled, the grains had congealed into a solid mass. Not only did that
solve the dust-spreading problems, it opened a world of possibilities.

Taylor envisions a wheeled microwave -- a lunar Zamboni -- that could pave
landing pads or roads. You could forge dust into bricks or I-beams for habitats.

You also could capture melt gases and process them into rocket fuel and other
consumables. Schmitt is pushing the idea of collecting helium from moon dust and
using it to fire fusion reactors for clean energy back on Earth. (The technology
still must be worked out.)

Moon dust's potential has given Taylor a renewed vigor.

"I was thinking of slowing down and all of a sudden it hit the fan," he said. "I
was thinking about going back to the moon, and my wife said, Be careful what you
wish for.' "
Received on Sun 11 Feb 2007 05:55:45 PM PST