RETURN TO THE MOON: THIS TIME TO STAY

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RETURN TO THE MOON THIS TIME TO STAY
Tennessee Space Grant Consortium
Larry Taylor Dawn Taylor
Planetary Geosciences Institute Department of
Earth Planetary Sciences University of Tennessee
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July 20, 1969
Dec. 12, 1972
Last Man
First Man
It is the Heritage of Mankind that We are
Explorers, to Go Where No Person has Gone Before.
In January, 2004, President Bush established a
national program of returning humans to space,
first to the Moon, then Mars, and beyond.
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With Exploration and Settling of the Moon, We
must Learn to Live Off the Land, in much the
same way Our Ancestors Settled America.
Water-Ice ??
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Living Conditions on the Moon

• No Atmosphere - Deep Vacuum 10-12 to 10-15
  atm
• Temperatures Equator
• Day 125
  0C Night -150 0C
• Avg. -20 120 0C
• Poles Dark
  -220-240 0C
• 
  Lighted -50 20 0C
• Micrometeorite Impact Velocities to gtgt105
  km/hr
• Radiation Galactic / Cosmic / Solar-ray
  Particles

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Our Unhappy Moon
Radiation
Solar Wind
Weathering
30 - 100,000 MPH
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Micrometeorite Impacts on a Lunar Glass Bead
0.5 ?m 5 ?m
5 mm
Projectile
1/100th the diameter of a hair on your head
Impact Craters
Zap Pits
Courtesy Dave McKay
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Lunar Soil Formation
Comminution, Agglutination, Vapor Deposition
The major Weathering and Erosional agent on the
Moon is Meteorite / Micrometeorite Impacts.
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Pieces of minerals, rocks, and glass welded
together by shock-melt glass
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SEM - BSE
Milky Way of nanophase Feo
all white beads Metallic Iron (Fe0)
Fe0
Lunar Soil 40-80 Impact Glass
All Impact Glass has Metallic Fe
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MAGNETIC PROPERTIESOF LUNAR SOILS

• Abundance of Nano- phase
  Fe0 in
• Lunar Soil Increases as
  Grain Size of the Particles Decreases

• Magnetic Susceptability of Soil Particles
  Increases as Grain Size Decreases

• All lt50 ?m Particles (50 wt) of Lunar Soil
  are Easily
• Attracted by a simple Hand-held Magnet.
  (Taylor et al., 2005)

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Apollo 17 Astronaut Harrison H. (Jack)
Schmitt
All Activities on the Moon Generate Dust
Dusty Lunatic
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Lunar Dust Effects Must be Addressed before any
Commercial Presenceon the Moon can be Fully
Evaluated.

• Potential for settling on all thermal and
  optical surfaces, such as Solar
  cells and mirrors and
• Coatings, on seals, gaskets, optical lens,
  windows,
  electrical components,
  astronaut suits, etc. and
• Abrasiveness, with regards to friction-bearing
  surfaces
• Physiological effects on humans, especially with
  respect to the lungs, the lymph system, and
  potentially the cardiovascular system, in
  the case of extremely fine particles.

Lunar Dust Hay Fever, Jack Schmitt
SOLUTION Magnetic brushes ??
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ANOTHER WHITE HOUSE LEAK!!
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MICROWAVE RADIATION for DUST MITIGATION

• There is an entire subculture of people who
  derive pleasure from putting strange things
  in microwave ovens
• Things that microwave oven manufacturers would
  strenuously suggest should not be put there.

• Table grapes produce glowing plasmas

• Soap bars mutate into abominable soap monsters

• Compact discs incandesce

• Even Wet Poodles have been known to explode.

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Microwave Heating of Lunar Soil
NanoPhase Fe0 in Silicate Glass so small as to
be below the effective skin depth of microwave
penetration makes for
GREAT MICROWAVE COUPLING!
Lunar soil in your kitchen microwave oven will
melt 1200 0C, BEFORE your tea-water boils 100
0C!!
Taylor Meek (2005)
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Where It All Started !!
Performed in the Hot-node of a Multimode Oven
Initial Experiments
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LUNAR SOIL PROCESSING PRODUCTS
SINTERING and MELTING
Creating Smooth-Sintered to Glassy Surfaces on
the Moon
Microwave Source
ParabolicMetalReflector
Primary Cone of Microwaves
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LUNAR SOIL PROCESSING PRODUCTS
SINTERING and MELTING
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2.45 GHz Full Wave-Guide Microwave Unit
Dual Power Monitor
Flexible Waveguide
3-Port Circulator
3-Stub Tuner
Precision Sliding Short Circuit
Short Dummy Load
Applicator Chamber
Prof. Taylor Vodka From Russian colleagues
A Single Magnetron
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50 Watts
1 gm Pellet,
1750 0C
(3182 0C)
10 sec
RUN-AWAY MICROWAVE HEATING - gt1000 0C/10 seconds
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LUNAR-SURFACE PAVER
TAYLOR ZAMBONI
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TIME FOR ANOTHER WALK ON THE MOON
Coming Along?
Courtesy, Jack Schmitt