NASA Awards $57M Contract to Build Roads on the Moon

Re:NASA Awards $57M Contract to Build Roads on the Moon by Etheryte on Tuesday December 06, 2022 @01:28PM (#33884774)

Since my childhood home is next to a gravel road, I somewhat doubt that compacted gravel would be feasible. Gravel roads of all kinds spin up a lot of dust when you drive on them, and on the Moon it would take even longer to settle than on Earth. A constant cloud of floating particles can not be good for your gear if you want to travel through it with any reasonable frequency.

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Re:NASA Awards $57M Contract to Build Roads on the Moon by avmich on Tuesday December 06, 2022 @02:01PM (#33885255)

> A constant cloud of floating particles can not be good for your gear if you want to travel through it with any reasonable frequency.

I bet on the Moon that dust behaves very different. No atmosphere, so no usual clouds. Static electricity, so some possible weird behavior. No erosion and soil, so dust is sharp and hard.

It would be interesting to see how road construction looks like on the Moon.

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Re:NASA Awards $57M Contract to Build Roads on the Moon by throwawaymaths on Tuesday December 06, 2022 @04:37PM (#33887413)

Moon dust is totally weird stuff. Because there's no erosion, it's super shardey and pokey. This also means that points of contact between individual dust particles are minimal, so it's highly insulating and also has very poor thermal conductivity across the bulk.

I wonder if it would be worth it to set up a mid/high frequency vibration device up to the moon and just run it for a few months? Years? To cause vibrational contact erosion in the immediate environs of wherever you intend to land to soften up the shards... Would that even work?

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Re:NASA Awards $57M Contract to Build Roads on the Moon by dr_dshiv on Tuesday December 06, 2022 @04:49PM (#33887570)

“I wonder if it would be worth it to set up a mid/high frequency vibration device up to the moon and just run it for a few months? Years? To cause vibrational contact erosion in the immediate environs of wherever you intend to land to soften up the shards...“

Love this. Very creative.

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Re:NASA Awards $57M Contract to Build Roads on the Moon by frosted-flakes on Tuesday December 06, 2022 @04:58PM (#33887689)

I recall that one of the moon rovers had a broken fender, and the dust was kicking up was causing all sorts of problems. So the next day they fashioned a homemade fender out of duct tape and some laminated maps. On the moon.

https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/2...

> One dousing with dust was enough to make a deep impression on Schmitt. Back on Earth he opined that "the dust issue is one that just has to be addressed. It's going to be the major environmental issue for future missions to the Moon."

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Re:NASA Awards $57M Contract to Build Roads on the Moon by Etheryte on Tuesday December 06, 2022 @05:09PM (#33887829)

That was a great read, plus a good highlight for just how much of a problem dust is for Moon (and Mars and beyond) missions. Thanks for linking it!

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Re:NASA Awards $57M Contract to Build Roads on the Moon by frosted-flakes on Tuesday December 06, 2022 @06:46PM (#33888739)

I'm pretty sure I first heard about it in Gene Cernan's book The Last Man on the Moon. It's a very good read, and not too long (5hr audiobook), so if you want more of those stories that book is filled with them. He also narrated the audiobook himself, and did a pretty good job.

https://www.audible.com/pd/B002VACH5S

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