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Comments on Lunar Dust Fountains Due To Electrostatic Charges
A great article on NASA's website points out how science fiction author Hal Clement predicted in a 1956 short story that electrostatically charged lunar dust particles might actually suspend themselves above the surface: (Read
the complete story)
| "Lunar dust pools also feature in Arthur C. Clarke's A FALL OF MOONDUST. In the Clement story, the astronauts are threatened by the dust electrostatically plating itself over the viewplate of their helmets. They have to resort to basic science in order to save themselves." (Winchell Chung 4/1/2005 6:15:35 AM) |
| "A.C.C. also had another great novel titled 'A Fall of Moondust' which also featured the insulating power of moon dust." (Jeff K 4/4/2005 10:50:57 AM) |
| "The NEAR-Shoemaker Mission to the asteroid Eros found that the bottoms of craters on Eros were flat and filled with fine dust particles. Eros' small mass and low gravity meant that these particles were not collecting at the bottoms of craters due to gravity. It was hypothosized that the dust collected after acquiring an electrostatic charge from solar wind in a slow process that took millions of years." (Ray 4/6/2005 2:10:14 PM) |
| "Interesting...the chief NASA scientist in charge of this is named Stubbs, while "Hal Clement" was the pen-name of the late Harry Stubbs..." (Nekultura 4/9/2005 7:00:42 PM) |
| """Why did you do that?" Wheeler asked anxiously. "We seemed to be getting some where."
"Yes, but we're also getting too hot. This dust is an almost perfect heat insulator..."
There's a problem here. The vacuum on the Moon's surface is a pretty good insulator too.
If you have excess heat to deal with you need some large finned radiators, which should be on the top of the vehicle." (William Carr 1/28/2007 9:50:39 PM) |
| "William Carr - is that from "A Fall of Moondust" or from "Earthlight"?" (Bill Christensen 1/30/2007 1:40:58 PM) |
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