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Comment on We really should have all seen this coming.

CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

Well, yes we’re getting a better one. I worked on Artemis adjacent projects and NASA isn’t just dreaming, they have plans for an actual moon base. It might take a decade or two, but it represents much more sustainable research and more beneficial research than what we have now in the ISS.

For those interested, I worked as an intern on a few lunar soil related projects and the plan is to actually build stuff with it. If you’re interested, AMA

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brbposting@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
🔥

You NASA folks just might be used to a challenge here and there:

Blow my mind with lunar soil in one sentence?

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- CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Not sure what will blow your mind but here’s some fun facts I feel like people don’t commonly know:
  
  Lunar regolith isn’t shallow, in many areas the regolith is 5m deep in the highlands and in craters and other areas it can be as much as 15m deep
  
  The regolith contains agglutinates, particles of rock that have been melted together by meteor impacts. They’re basically rock glass that contributes to the high abrasion of the regolith. We don’t have much of that stuff on earth and it’s very hard to make ourselves.
  
  Due to the lack of atmosphere, much of the dust is charged statically and will cling to astronauts and machines. I knew teams working on a sort of pulsing electricity in a grid of wires to repel the dust off of panels and suits.
  
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  - brbposting@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    So earth has a moon which is covered in rock. Meteors slam into it which melts that rock together into very angular (sharp) rock glass.
    
    Rocks on the moon don’t just pile up a little bit. They might be 15 meters deep in certain craters. Almost as helpful as quicksand for those who want to walk or drive over it.
    
    Some of the smallest rocks on the moon cause trouble for astronauts: statically charged dust. It sticks to people and equipment, and creative solutions (pulsingly charged wire grids) have been necessary to mitigate it.
    
    Oh yeah - that’s cool!! Thanks for sharing :)
    
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    CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    No problem! Glad you found it interesting :)
    
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  - MaggiWuerze@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    What could that glass be used for, other than building houses? Can you sink in the deeper parts like NASA feared when they send the first people up?
    
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    CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    The glass just has high angularity like the other particles it comes from so while in and of itself it isn’t useful, highly angular particles make for better interlocking when made into cements.
    
    And I don’t think they’re as worried about the depth of the dust in the highlands but it definitely makes exploring craters on foot impossible with the regolith present. You could absolutely get buried in it if the depth of the dust is 10m deep in some spots. We have a lot of concerns with the dust and how we can make long term survivable hardware which is part of what I worked on.
    
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