{"id":7298,"date":"2005-04-05T06:29:29","date_gmt":"2005-04-05T13:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2005\/04\/05\/i-dont-suppose-they-can-just-call-housekeeping.html"},"modified":"2005-04-05T06:29:29","modified_gmt":"2005-04-05T13:29:29","slug":"i_dont_suppose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/04\/05\/i_dont_suppose.html","title":{"rendered":"I don’t suppose they can just call housekeeping"},"content":{"rendered":"

The biggest environmental problem facing astronauts on the Moon isn’t the vacuum, the radiation, or the temperature extremes. It’s dust<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For one, some of the dust particles are only a few microns wide. This makes it easy for the particles to get deep into the lungs and stay there. Scientists worry that this could eventually lead to fatal lung diseases similar to silicosis.<\/p>\n

Also, the dust is littered with bonded shards of glass and minerals known as agglutinates, which were formed in the heat of meteorite impacts. Agglutinates have not been found on Earth, and scientists worry that the human body may not be able to expel them efficiently if inhaled.<\/p>\n

“They have sharp angles, with arms that stick out and little hooks,” said David McKay, chief scientist for astrobiology at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. “It’s like Velcro.”<\/p>\n

And it’s not like you can just brush your feet off.<\/p>\n

Lunar dust is extremely abrasive — and unavoidable — as astronauts quickly learned during the Apollo missions of the 1960s and ’70s. Within hours, the dust covered the astronauts’ spacesuits and equipment, scratching lenses and corroding seals.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for the astronauts, their contact with lunar dust was short enough that it didn’t cause any major problems. But explorers living on a moon base for weeks or even months at a time are not likely to get away so clean.<\/p>\n

[…] The Apollo astronauts couldn’t help but get covered in the stuff as they struggled to stay upright on the moon’s surface, where the force of gravity is one-sixth of that on Earth. Later, they tracked the dust back into their space capsules and inhaled it when they took off their helmets.<\/p>\n

“When you go weightless again, it shook up from the floorboards,” said Schmitt. “It smelled like spent gunpowder.”<\/p>\n

(via GeekPress<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The biggest environmental problem facing astronauts on the Moon isn’t the vacuum, the radiation, or the temperature extremes. It’s dust. For one, some of the dust particles are only a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":134684,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/13\/like-ionic-candle-wind.html","url_meta":{"origin":7298,"position":0},"title":"Like An Ionic Candle in the Wind","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 13-Sep-17 1:28pm","format":false,"excerpt":"This is very cool. A research team from Saudi Arabia has developed a new method for generating 3D images of flames when they\u2019re exposed to electrical fields. When electrodes are placed on each side of a flame, an \u201cionic wind\u201d is created\u2014charged particles in the flame move toward the electrodes,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/unnamed.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":40942,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/01\/i-see-red-moon-a-rising.html","url_meta":{"origin":7298,"position":1},"title":"I See … Red Moon A-Rising","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 1-Feb-14 6:42pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Very nice. And some good science stuff, too.Reshared post from +Corina MarinescuWhy is the Moon sometimes orange or red?Have you ever wondered why the moon is more orange or yellow in color when it first rises at night. This effect is caused by the atmosphere of the earth. The reason\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51775,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/17\/the-gods-have-gifted-us-with-the-greatest-seaweed-of-all.html","url_meta":{"origin":7298,"position":2},"title":"The Gods Have Gifted Us With The Greatest Seaweed Of All!","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 17-Jul-15 1:08pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Assuming that, when fried, it really does taste like bacon.Of course, bacon is more than just the taste -- but I could settle for mediocre bacon seaweed treats that were good for me. With, y'know, occasional real bacon. Because ... bacon.My needs are pretty simple, when you come down to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13044,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/08\/10\/now_available_in_convenie.html","url_meta":{"origin":7298,"position":3},"title":"Now available in convenient pouches!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 10-Aug-08 2:02pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's your Food Quiz Question of the Day: What is the main reason\u00a0some Australian\u00a0scientists recommending that people shift from eating beef to eating kangaroo? A. Farm raised kangaroos only require...","rel":"","context":"In "Environment"","block_context":{"text":"Environment","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/science\/environment"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6252,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/10\/01\/pardon_our_dust.html","url_meta":{"origin":7298,"position":4},"title":"Pardon our dust (again)","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 1-Oct-04 8:58pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Doing some dynamic page gen stuff on DDtB ... please stand by ... UPDATE: Hrm. Not working right. Not sure why. But since only the Category archives are frelled, I'm...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging & Internet"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging & Internet","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47941,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/this-sure-feels-like-how-our-weather-changed-yesterday.html","url_meta":{"origin":7298,"position":5},"title":"This sure feels like how our weather changed yesterday","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 11-Nov-14 3:41pm","format":false,"excerpt":"We didn't get the dust storm coming through at our house, but we did have some very powerful gusts blow through yesterday, shortly before \"Late Summer\" turned into \"Pre-Fimbulwinter.\" Arctic Haboob: Dust Storm Sweeps Over Colorado A passenger on a plane passing over Colorado captured this stunning aerial view of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7298\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}