What Can We Do with Moon Dust?
This August, a Russian rocket is scheduled to leave Earth bound for the south polar region of the moon. It will be carrying Luna 25, a lunar lander charged with the mission of better understanding our rocky satellite’s surface. NASA has a similar planned mission, scheduled to launch in November. And India’s latest lunar lander, scheduled for launch in July will likely do some digging around in the dust, too.
Why the sudden surge in global interest in the surface of the moon—which might seem rather, well, uninteresting, save for a few footprints and a couple of golf balls?
Billions of years of impacts have ground it into a fine, sharp-edged powder.
It turns out that the surface of the moon is full of mysteries, particularly its fine dust covering. In the lunar soil, scientists hope to find clues about the formation of our solar system and glean answers about what other worlds might be like. It is also the destination for a new generation. So not only will we want to learn how to live with this vexing substrate, we’re also going to need to learn how to build with it. In other words, we’re going to have to get our hands dirty.
