When the lunar probe Surveyor 1 landed on the moon had a first and urgent mission. Get a picture of your legs to see if it was sinking, if the surface had sufficient substance to support future Apollo missions.
How to calculate the depth of a pile of dust?. Or consistency. Or the weight that is able to resist from 384,000 kilometers away. In 1966 it was not a theoretical problem. Were little more than three years that the man pisase the Moon, the first extraterrestrial object to be stepped on and did not know very well how serious the field. Naturally multiplied all studies, estimates of the composition of the regolith covering its surface, simulations of the behavior of micrometeorites falling on the Moon and analysis of the action of its weak gravity and solar radiation to compact. The general opinion was to resist, but the final proof could only furnish a ship that posase and check the resistance of the ground. Surveyor mission was a success, but unfortunately it seems that some still have not heard .
Once stepped on, the lunar dust continued to occupy scientists for many reasons. One of the most curious was the smell. You could not smell the powder through the costumes but embedded in the surface and just pervasive. Later the astronauts breathed small particles dispersed in the air of his ship. According to the astronaut Charlie Duke
moondust smelled of gunpowder. Obviously the composition lunar dust is unlike the powder but rather, no one knows which caused the resemblance. Changes in temperature, desorption
of some gases, maybe some chemical reactions, were combined to produce an odor that disappeared on reaching the ground. One of the many questions that still await us on the moon. And is not the only surprise might be in store. Some preliminary studies
indicate that the finer particles of lunar dust may pose a serious health problem. Here on Earth, fine particles of silica dust may cause serious diseases such as silicosis of miners. Even more fine particles appear to be dangerous in the dust. Small enough to cross the pulmonary barrier, its composition rich in iron may interfere with the functioning of hemoglobin and produce a slow suffocation similar to that caused by carbon monoxide. Hopefully the problem is manageable as well as risks of radiation exposure we discussed in a previous post. Only further research can tell us if this fear disappeared as did the fear that the Apollo was over four meters deep in the lunar regolith.
Category: History of science
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