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?

“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.

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."

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!

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