This Can Ruin the Next Moon Mission

NASA's intentions for the moon are tremendous; one such project is Artemis 2, their next, most ambitious lunar program. By the age of 22, they hope to send astronauts, including the first woman and the following male, to the moon. The main goal of Artemis is to establish a long-lasting presence on the moon. To serve as a launchpad for lunar landings, they intend to build a lunar Gateway, a kind of space station in lunar orbit. Not to mention the fascinating lunar landers that scientists are creating. The Orion spacecraft carrying astronauts will be launched towards the moon by the powerful Space Launch System rocket. The human landing system is another, a sleek lunar lander that will softly touch down on the moon's surface and let astronauts explore and carry out incredible scientific investigations. Additionally, NASA is working with international partners like the European Space Agency to realize this lunar dream rather than traveling alone this time. But anything that initially appears to be incredibly trivial and unimportant could wreck all these beautiful ambitions.

Imagine there is no atmosphere, no air to breathe, but at sunrise and sunset, weird haze and bright beams of light appear. The moon appears to be performing a celestial display, but this beauty has a twist. This breathtaking sight caused NASA astronaut Harrison Schmidt to sneeze and moisten his eyes while on the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. It was known as lunar hay fever. All 12 moonwalkers were afflicted with this enigmatic fever, which caused stuffy noses and sneezing episodes.

Those astronauts displayed symptoms like a cold. The reactions did not go gone for several days. The darker side of lunar dust was discovered as a result of this incident.

When researchers learned about these rays, they got to work investigating their origins. And this is what they found: the sunlight was actually what was shining through the layers of microscopic lunar dust, creating those brilliant bands of light. There were tiny particles and glass shards hidden everywhere in the dust. And it turned out that the cunning villain was this lunar dust. Among the many issues it brought were astronauts who had eyesight impairment.

The troublemaker went even further, harming priceless equipment and bringing about technological failures. Inside the spacecraft, it even had the audacity to corrode parts and smell like burnt gunpowder. Yikes.

Links are everywhere, covering everything like a cunning blanket. It can clog up machinery, enter sensitive equipment, and even interfere with astronauts' spacesuits. Things again became quite tense in 1972. After only 22 hours of frolicking on the lunar surface, the Apollo 17 crew were faced with a nightmare: their spacesuits had sustained irreversible damage. Irreparable, you heard correctly. The astronauts' movement was reduced by the dust, making it more difficult for them to maneuver and complete their moonwalks gracefully. And despite their best efforts to remove it, it stubbornly stuck to the spacesuits, leaving them in a miserable state.

As you can see, it presents some significant difficulties for upcoming moon trips. But our persistent researchers aren't giving up. They need to comprehend how moon dust develops and why it is so clinging in order to find a solution to this issue.

They learned that meteorite collisions are the beginning of everything. These asteroids create fine dust that fills the atmosphere when they collide with the moon. Sometimes these collisions even trigger the melting of minerals, creating glass shards that mix with the dust and are quite sharp. A moon makeover, indeed.

The substance silicate, which is frequently present on volcanic planets, is also abundant in dust. You can imagine the damage silicate inhalation can bring on the moon after learning that it can seriously harm miners' lungs on Earth. According to a recent study, even a scoop of fake moon dust is poisonous enough to kill up to 90% of exposed lung and brain cells.

It worsens, though. Due to the moon's low gravity, the minute particles can float there for a longer period of time and enter the lungs deeper. It wouldn't be a good idea to spend months breathing particles 50 times smaller than a human hair.

And as you can see, conditions there differ somewhat from those here. There aren't any thunderstorms or strong winds blowing this dust away. Additionally, there is no atmosphere to shield the surface, thus these dry particles endure because there are no natural forces of wind and water erosion like there are on Earth. Additionally, the sun's energy is constantly radiated onto the moon, adding to the tense situation. The dust acquires an electric charge due to this exposure. Positively and negatively charged particles are produced by the solar winds. The particles then whirl around, rejecting one another and creating the brilliant bands of light that the astronauts on Apollo 8 saw. On the moon, it's like a disco party.

A group of specialists has been assembled by the European Space Agency to investigate the lunar dust. To comprehend its behavior and impacts, they are experimenting with fictitious moon dust extracted from a German volcanic zone. Future astronauts and their equipment must also be protected, so engineers must find a solution. The goal of NASA engineers is to develop spacesuits that can withstand 100 extravehicular activities on the lunar surface, not just one, not ten, or even one. That equates to 800 hours of fun-filled exploration outside.

The Breakthrough Innovative and Game-changing Idea Challenge was also launched by NASA in 2021. It was available to intelligent college students from throughout the globe. These bright young minds donned their thinking caps and unleashed a torrent of creative answers.

For instance, they suggested employing unique electrically conductive threads that were modeled after fluffy chinchilla hair. These threads would aid in containing the lunar dust, much like how chinchillas avoid it. Isn't that adorable—a furry companion extending a helping hand? A brush that was electrically charged and triggered by UV light was another clever concept. It zaps the dust with a flick of the wrist, almost like a magic wand. Lunar dust, abracadabra, be gone.

Not to mention the cloth designed by cunning insects. These insects feature dust-repelling pollen-collecting structures. Therefore, our clever students reasoned, why not copy that? They created a shield against the stealthy moon particles using a cloth with similar qualities.

These concepts are noteworthy since they all rely on the charge to combat the dust. The spacesuits are kept clean and safe by deftly repelling it from them. All of these concepts are excellent, but NASA researchers have come up with an even better one: carbon nanotubes. It's a fantastic approach to modernizing spacesuit material.

What is so unique about these carbon nanotubes? They do have some incredible superpowers, though. First of all, they are superconductive, which enables them to transport electricity with ease. It resembles a lightning strike that has been imprisoned inside a tiny tube.

Furthermore, these carbon nanotubes are more durable than the hardest meteors. They are robust enough to resist the hostile lunar environment, where a single particle of dust can be problematic. Imagine wearing clothing that is more durable than Superman's cape. Therefore, these remarkable carbon nanotubes were woven into the spacesuit fabric by NASA experts. The electrodes were carefully incorporated into the fabric's outer layer, making it powerful.

How do they get rid of the lunar dust, though? So, the exciting science is back. The electrodes produce strong electric fields when they are turned on by a particular alternating current.

Dust particles, both charged and uncharged, are repelled away from the spacesuit by fields, which function like magnets. Imagine that the dust particles are the unwanted visitors at the dance party, and the electric fields are the bouncers hurriedly taking them away.

This technology makes it so that our astronauts are unaffected by lunar dust. On the plus side, lunar soil can be utilized to create bricks for constructing shelters. In order for astronauts to spend a lot of time on the moon, it can also assist in extracting oxygen.

Make lemonade when life tosses you lemons, right? So let's support our NASA dream team as they go out on this arduous lunar exploration. Let's hope they are successful in their research and that there won't be any major issues with the upcoming lunar expedition. Remain tuned.