Moon dust : science

[–] [email protected] 96 points 11 months ago

[–] [email protected] 47 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I’m pretty sure everyone is allergic to having their skin and lungs rubbed with mica.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

Yeah, moon dust is basically microscopic shrapnel. No one should be breathing that shit in.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Moon dust is functionally a lot like asbestos. It is composed of a sizeable amount of tiny shards of rock that aren't great for your lungs.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yea, you should really consider that before breathing on the moon

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

Any lunar dust that they made contact with would have found its way into the lunar module for them to breathe in and be exposed to.

[+] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago (4 children)

[removed by mod]

[–] [email protected] 84 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's sand that has never been exposed to water or oxygen. This leaves various reactive chemicals on the surface that would normally be broken down. The lack of water also means the particles haven't been smoothed off as much. They are sharp and spiky.

The combination of these effects makes the dust quite unique, compared to earth dust.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It also reportedly smells like gunpowder.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Burned or unburned? They are two distinct smells.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

Burned, according to the astronauts. I don’t know if the exact mechanism has been published anywhere, but since spent gunpowder has been oxidized I imagine that’s what’s going on with the dust as well.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 11 months ago (2 children)

50% SiO2, 15% Al2O3, 10% CaO, 10% MgO, 5% TiO2 and 5-15% iron

[–] [email protected] 44 points 11 months ago

And 100% reason to remember the name.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

All those oxides but the iron is pure? SUS.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Sand, but sharp due to a lack of water erosion, and formed mostly from asteroid impacts and thermal cycling. So it's more like glass dust. It's possible it has similar effects on lungs as asbestos, but we don't know for sure.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Jack Schmidt = Anakin confirmed.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

More like Jack Schmidt = Cave Johnson

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago

Not being allergic to finely graded rocks that have been bathing in radiation for billions of years seems more unlikely.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

The sample size is at least a little bit bigger...

Some guy stole moon rocks (presumably still had moon dust on them) to bang his gf on them.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (2 children)

better link: https://www.timesnownews.com/the-buzz/article/thad-roberts-the-nasa-intern-who-stole-lunar-rocks-to-have-sex-on-the-moon/748813

don't use amp links pls

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Roberts was sentenced to more than eight years in prison for his role in the Moonrock caper, as well as a separate offence of stealing dinosaur bones from a museum in Utah.

I'm afraid to ask what he did with the dinosaur bones!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Boned on bones, obviously.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Thank you so much

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago

So, if someone were to crash the moon into the earth to stop it escaping, as many as 1/12 of the population could experience a reduced quality of life?

Might need to consider not doing that I suppose.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Here's a source for this: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/The_toxic_side_of_the_Moon

He's a climate change denier though.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

wow seems you're absolutely right https://www.livescience.com/63836-harrison-schmitt-climate-change.html

very sad 😔

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (2 children)

what'd be the smallest sample size that would yield a relevant result?

30? 1000?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Me. Just get me there

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Can we not... Just... Bring back some moon dust?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

There's the possibility of contamination if we do that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Well, if humans were a homogeneous population maybe that could work. But just imagine the huge number of factors at play here. Like, demographics, cultural background (different exposures & different allergy rates in general I would guess), genetic susceptibilities, individual lifestyles (e.g smoking) and probably a lot more! Even a sample size of 1000 seems pretty small to test for general human allergy rates to moon dust. If you were talking about just one population of humans, e.g. the US, you would certainly need more than 30 but maybe not 1000.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

For reference: https://www.newsweek.com/last-man-walk-moon-allergic-lunar-dust-1449945

But. Moon dust is poisonous and gets everywhere.

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