2/25/2024 0 Comments Lunar rock![]() Dust matteredīefore the historic Apollo 11 flight, NASA scientists realized that the lunar module would probably kick up a lot of dust when it launched to return to Earth. The explorers easily kicked up the fine-grained material, which tended to adhere to anything it touched because the regolith's electric charge caused a sort of "static cling" that made it even harder to remove. Lunar dust was incredibly aggressive, invading the nooks and crannies of the lunar module, the spacesuits of the astronauts, and even the seals of the sample collection boxes. The constant hail of micrometeorites breaks up the rocks and melts patches of regolith, creating small glass fragments. Since the moon lacks a substantial atmosphere, the upper layers of lunar regolith are exposed to micrometeorites and solar wind irradiation. Apollo 11 samples have also been reported to contain pieces of volcanic glass. The regolith of the moon includes fine gray dust and rock fragments from local bedrocks. Areas disturbed by astronauts and spacecraft were darker than pristine regions. On the lunar surface, the color and brightness of the regolith appeared to change with the viewing angle, although this effect disappeared in labs on Earth. Some of the rocks sat on the surface, while others were partially or completely buried in the dust. In particular, those conclusions included that the lunar surface was a mix of tiny grains of dust and larger angular rocks. The astronauts' observations combined with telemetry data from the spacecraft allowed scientists to make their first tentative conclusions about the lunar surface. Instead, the mission relied on astronaut observations of what they saw as they explored the moon, plus the surface samples they brought home. Unlike some later missions, Apollo 11 didn't carry any experiments to pull samples up from below the moon's surface. Until astronaut Buzz Aldrin, while about 40 feet above the surface, commented on how the lunar dust churned up by the module struck the moon's surface, the regolith remained a mystery, Apollo researcher Brian O'Brien, a physicist now at the University of Western Australia, said in a statement. The material could act like quicksand or be covered in damaging shards. ![]() But until right before the crew touched down, there was no way to know how safe the surface might be for human exploration. The lunar surface is solidīefore the astronauts landed, observations from Earth and other landers suggested that the moon was coated with a fine dusting of material. Let's look at some of the key science gleaned from Apollo 11 and its successors.
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