Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: doppler1 on 15/01/2010 12:59:39

Title: The return of moondust to the surface?
Post by: doppler1 on 15/01/2010 12:59:39

I am not a conspiracy theorist at all and have watched many film clips regarding the moon landing and stuff. One thing has struck me as odd though, if you watch a film clip of the moon buggy moving around, the wheels have enough torque, traction and speed to throw dirt up into the air as it propells the buggy forward but, for such a reduced gravitational force, the dirt sprayed up behind the buggy seems to return to the surface very quickly indeed. Has anyone else noticed this or does anyone have an explanation for me?

Title: The return of moondust to the surface?
Post by: Geezer on 15/01/2010 17:04:52

On Earth we are used to seeing dust hang in the air. The small particles of dust are being attracted towards the earth by gravity, but the air molecules provide a lot of resistance to the particles, so they take a long time to settle on the Earth. They may even be carried off in the wind for great distances.

The Moon has no atmosphere. There are no air molecules, so even though Moon gravity is much less than Earth gravity, everything, even tiny specs of dust, accelerate towards the Moon's surface equally.

Title: The return of moondust to the surface?
Post by: yor_on on 16/01/2010 13:54:37

nice explanation Geezer

Title: The return of moondust to the surface?
Post by: doppler1 on 18/01/2010 12:37:25

Thanks Geezer. Makes perfect sense now.

Title: The return of moondust to the surface?
Post by: syhprum on 18/01/2010 13:48:59

Of course the more likely explanation is that the in the studio where the pictures were faked the gravity was 6 times what it would have been on the moon

Title: The return of moondust to the surface?
Post by: guissepe on 19/01/2010 15:16:01

As far as we are talking about dust is Geezer right.
I havent watched the movie, but maybe the surface was soft and the wheels were put deep in dirt so the dirt was sprayed more above than beyond the wheels. In sucha case the dirt didnt do that much balistic movement that we are used to on earth and was just fallen above and than sudenly droped.