When astronauts arrive on the moon’s surface, they first encounter a plume of dirt thrown by the spacecraft’s boosters. They will emerge and leave boot prints in the soil, take samples to study the soil, and ultimately use that soil to provide fuel and other materials needed to sustain a long-term presence on the moon. may make supplies. When it comes to lunar exploration, it’s all about the soil.
planetary physicist Philip Metzger of the University of Central Florida is the king of the lunar soil, or regolith. In 2013, he co-founded a laboratory group at NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida. So the research team spent their days working with artificial lunar regolith, like the sample pictured below, to learn how it works and what they might be able to do with it. that. That knowledge becomes increasingly important as NASA’s Artemis mission aims to return humans to the moon’s surface in 2027 and eventually establish a permanent base there.
Regolith would be both dangerous for astronauts to land on and an important resource for astronauts to build upon. Metzger worked with scientists at various research institutes to find ways to protect astronauts and their homes from dangerous sharp dust particles and to use the soil as rocket fuel and radiation shielding material. are.
he spoke new scientist About what a permanent human presence on the Moon would look like, why regolith is so important to that vision, and how to make sense of this thick stuff.
Source: www.newscientist.com
