The Problem with the Next Moon Mission

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Credits:
Co-Writer/Narrator: Brian McManus
Writer: Barnaby Martin
Editor: Dylan Hennessy
Editor: David O'Sullivan
Animator: Mike Ridolfi
Animator: Eli Prenten
Sound: Graham Haerther
Thumbnail: Simon Buckmaster

References

Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images
Thank you to AP Archive for access to their archival footage.

Songs:

Thank you to my patreon supporters: Adam Flohr, Henning Basma, Hank Green, William Leu, Tristan Edwards, Ian Dundore, John & Becki Johnston. Nevin Spoljaric, Jason Clark, Thomas Barth, Johnny MacDonald, Stephen Foland, Alfred Holzheu, Abdulrahman Abdulaziz Binghaith, Brent Higgins, Dexter Appleberry, Alex Pavek, Marko Hirsch, Mikkel Johansen, Hibiyi Mori. Viktor Józsa, Ron Hochsprung

[julienceaser]

I love the astronauts instinctively trying to blow dust off the equipment

[MatthewPogi-mdoq]

“ I hate dust, its coarse, and rough, and it gets everywhere.” - NASA probably

[samsonsoturian]

Soldiers in the Iraq War also had problems with dust. Iraq's desert sands are as old as the Earth and are ground extremely fine. The slightest wind kicks them up, it's coarse, and it gets everywhere. Even inside air field control tents, computers were found to overheat as the sand somehow managed to get in. Soldiers said they had to clear rifles everyday regardless if they used them because there would always be sand. It'd get in your shoes, inside your pants, and so on and so forth.

[gibbailey]

Amazing how they all survived - almost beyond belief.

[fakshen]

If you were to have any permanent or long term (more than a few days) presence on the moon, you'd also need "clean rooms" that have no other feature but to ATTRACT dust particles. Think of that room as a pre-airlock when entering from the outside. Keeping dust out of the airlock and the crew areas would be critical. So, yes, (anti) dust chambers would become a definite thing.

[funsun]

"Engineers said the moon rocks were too volatile to experiment on. Tested on 'em anyway. Ground 'em up, mixed 'em into a gel. And guess what? Ground up moon rocks are pure poison. I am deathly ill." -- Cave Johnson (J.K. Simmons), Portal 2

[Markus_Andrew]

I highly recommend a little-known Arthur C. Clarke novel called "A Fall of Moondust". In it, Clarke postulated that if enough lunar dust (finer than talcum powder and with no moisture to make it clump) accumulated in a very large crater or basin, it could behave like a liquid, and anything solid dropped into it could sink - a fate which befalls the crew and passengers of a vehicle traveling over it just when a rare "moonquake" occurs. Even though the vehicle is designed to traverse this type of dust, it gets buried when the "quake" causes a cavity to form below the surface, and a race against time ensues to rescue to occupants. It's a brilliant "hard" sci-fi story and a suspenseful page-turner which would make an awesome movie, if said movie was faithful to the novel.

[A.R.]

During the Gulf War the dust was even an issue there. Dropping any electronic into the sand would kill it with just one drop. So tape players, cd players, anything with moving parts did not last. After a few months none of us had working players. Things that had no moving parts faired better, but the heat would get to those.

[kreynusr]

"Yeah I fell down" I love it.

[mikeall]

I know it's not exactly the same but the dust in southern Afghanistan is similar in consistency to moon dust. It is like a powder. We had a hell of a time keeping the aircraft electronics clean, in our helicopters. We used to do 0 g maneuvers to get the dust out of the lower consol so it could very vacuumed. And the engines got ripped up very quickly.

We were swapping them out every 2 weeks because the hot sections would get platted in glass. And the filters had to be changed out quite a bit too.

[GarrySax]

I worked on further developments of the SPIcDER system, mainly exploring ways to prevent dielectric breakdown between electrodes at higher voltages, and am very familiar with the materials science aspects of the tech. AMA!

Also, I'm amazed and super happy to see a video on the subject on this great channel, even more so well informed and presented :) Congrats and cheers!

[dan]

The part of the charged dust blew my mind. I’ve never even considered that possibility. This is why I’m subscribed to your channel and devour anything you upload. You’re truly a gift to the internet. Thank you so much for taking the time to make this video!

[freedom_]

I remember NASA talking about the Lunar dust being like micro sized razor blades or flint, that it got into everything, but I don't recall them saying it was this damn bad, I don't recall them showing the orbiting cloud of micro razors....no wonder we havn't gone back! As someone who worked in Construction for 4 decades, I know first hand how damaging very fine dust can be to equipment AND your lungs

[zakiducky]

I just wanted to say that the animation quality when showing how the dust repulsion system worked was _really_ impressive. The dust particle and gradient arrows looked really good.

[mrcet]

IIRC, one of the simplest methods they’re considering for keeping dust out of Lunar habitats, is, in essence, leaving the suits outside! More specifically, to enter the hab, you “dock, ” in essence, a small part of the suit to hab wall, with the majority of suit still kept outside, and then crawl out that small opening into the hab.

[carrotylemons]

While this is amazing, with 96% efficiency wouldn't there eventually still be a very big lung problem from dust accumulating over time inside a habitat or capsule?

[ItsBingus]

I honestly laughed pretty hard at the astronauts reaction to himself trying to blow off the dust lol

[LloydWaldo]

This is low key a huge reason why a mars mission is also extremely risky. The silica fines on the surface would absolutely destroy the lungs of the explorers, tracked into their habitats via the airlocks, and getting into their lungs making micro-cuts and killing them.

[dbrown]

In Iraq we'd often encounter what we'd call moon dust. Big patches of ultra-fine powdered sand/dirt that was so fine it almost behaved like a fluid. It would envelope your boots, tires or tracks and resist their withdrawal, like thick mud despite the dust being totally dry. Although it was a nuisance and could damage sensitive equipment, it was not insurmountable. I think the technology does or will exist that will allow astronauts or any moon-based humans to overcome it. Interesting video nonetheless.

[_random_commenter]

This also explains NASA's decision to "rent" spacesuits from third parties rather than developing their own, in-house. Telling companies "we'll give you this much money, and in return you must provide us with working space suits" is a perfect way to offload the decision-making process of how to deal with the countless number of issues that lunar dust will cause.