Image: NASA
Did you hear about the new restaurant on the moon? Great food, but no atmosphere.
While that wisecrack has been floating about in space circles for decades, a NASA lunar orbiter will gather detailed information about the moon's atmosphere next year, including conditions near its surface and environmental influences on lunar dust.
NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) is to depart the Earth for the moon in August 2013. LADEE is loaded with science gear, including instruments that can address a lingering question that's rooted in space history: Are electrostatically lofted lunar dust particles present within the moon's tenuous atmosphere?
Twilight rays on the moon
In the 1960s, several NASA Surveyor moon landers relayed images showing a twilight glow low over the lunar horizon persisting after the sun had set. Also, a number of Apollo astronauts orbiting the moon saw twilight rays before lunar sunrise or lunar sunset. [20 Most Amazing Moon Missions Ever]
In addition, some have floated the theory that the glowing transient lunar phenomenon seen from Earth might stem from sunlight reflecting off of suspended lunar dust.
LADEE will investigate this moon magic trick of levitating lunar dust. The spacecraft has the tools it needs to address mysteries and questions that have been around since Apollo, said Rick Elphic, LADEE project scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif.
Ames is responsible for managing the mission, building the spacecraft and performing mission operations.
Elphic told SPACE.com that among its duties, the LADEE mission can further investigate tantalizing hints about the dust and the moon’s exotic atmosphere.
"If we fly LADEE through the regions where the Apollo command module observations were made, we will know right away if there are small grains there or not," Elphic said. LADEE’s Lunar Dust Experiment (LDEX) is a very sensitive dust-detecting instrument, he said, and scientists may be able to place new upper limits on the dust in the first week of the spacecraft’s orbiting operations.
Nagging moon question
"If LADEE never sees levitated dust, that settles the question for the high-altitude observations, at least for its mission time frame," Elphic said.
Still, there’s the nagging question about what Surveyor saw, the near-surface horizon glow. "That might be something else entirely, and can only be addressed with a surface mission," Elphic said.
"If LADEE does see dust, we will then have a basis for expecting the same phenomena at all other ‘nearly-airless’ bodies around the solar system," Elphic added.
This dust may not pose much of a hazard, Elphic added, but the physics will need to be explained. Right now, no one has a good end-to-end model for getting dust to loft and secondly, stay suspended for long periods, he said.
"If LADEE observes levitated dust, then scientists will have to explain it. Right now, no one can," Elphic said.
One-way trip off the moon
One scientist ready for the new data to be gleaned by LADEE is Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, Apollo 17 moonwalker and geologist. He and astronaut Eugene Cernan walked the lunar surface in December 1972 — the last mission of the Apollo moon landings.
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7 Comments
Add CommentSeems to me that I recall an early sci-fi short story that featured electrostatically-charged moon dust. The stuff got on the astronaut's faceplate and obscured his vision; he figured out how to clear it off. Asimov maybe?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy wouldn't the dust be caused by micro meteors or any meteors. I'm assuming that there are millions(tons of them) hitting the moon every day just like earth.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAt one time, back in the 1940s into the early 1960s, it was thought that the surface of the Moon might have large deposits of rockdust here and there, such as in valleys, rilles, and craters. There was even the worry that anything landing on the surface of the Moon might get sucked up into the dust.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat was pretty well ruled out by the Surveyor program, which made five sucessful soft landings on the Moon (Surveyors 1, 3, 5, 6, & 7) and two crashes. The Ranger program also had several deliberate crashes on the lunar surface.
Going back to the 1950s and the deposits of moondust, please see the novel "A Fall of Moondust" by Arthur C. Clarke. It is still an interesting tale.
D.A.W.
@Wayne Williamson: "micrometeorites", and also "micro" is ALWAYS a prefix that is attached directly to words. Please see microcomputer, microcosom, microfilm, micrometer, microorgamism, microprocessor, microscope, and microwave.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisD.A.W.
@europamoon...I used the auto correct and chose the wrong one;-)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOh my God - THE SOLAR WINDS blowing MOON DUST ???
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisВозможно это атмосфера Земли(захваченная луной во время апокалипсической катастрофы)которая находится на Луне в виде льда.Всем известно,что газ может принимать как жидкое так и твёрдое состояние.Может лунный лёд под водействием солнечных лучей принимает газообразную форму а в тени опять превращается в лёд.Земная атмосфера возможно попала на Луну также как и брекчий на Землю,Луна захватила земной грунт вместе с частью атмосферы а земля брекчий.Луна должна быть усыпана земным грунтом
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