As NASA prepares to return to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years, University of Central Florida physicist Phil Metzger made a worrying announcement: Fast-moving megatoxic lunar dust is causing sand explosions. So astronauts probably need better safety standards to survive than those in place today. Explanations.
The physicist made this announcement in an interview given to ScientificAmerican. His comments call into question NASA’s current protections which would not be adequate to survive the impact of a sand explosion on the Moon.
Phil Metzger co-wrote a NASA policy advising that small lunar landers land no closer than two kilometers from Apollo landing sites to protect the site from sand explosions. Furthermore, he had theories about the danger of sand explosions from rockets. However, according to him, the data collected did not seem entirely consistent.
As part of his latest theory, published in two parts in the journal Icarus, the physicist proposed that instead of kicking up dust and eroding the lunar surface, the massive velocity of the rocket’s exhaust gases parallel to the ground creates a kind of kicking kinetic force. Thus, lunar dust grains could move at speeds four to ten times faster than scientists previously thought. “The amount of damage lunar dust could do to a spacecraft could be an order of magnitude worse than we thought. » This would mean spacesuits and spacecraft would need additional security.
To go further, know that NASA recently received a laser message projected over 225 million kilometers.
