Space/Science — HabitableZone

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No walking on the Moon Dust
nick hoffman — (archived)

The biggest problem that I see with optical scopes on the moon is that the ubiquitous moondust will rapidly coat all optics and infiltrate bearings. The bearing issue is common to all lunar machinery but the optical one is more specific to observatories.

R.L. has spoken before about how even blowing sharp dust particles off a high-tech optical element can scratch the surface.

Were a technician to approach a scope to "fix" it, he/she would also kick-up a cloud of dust that helped damage it, and any other nearby equipment.

Maybe you could bypass the problem with a system of raised walkways/railroads, but things are starting to get beyond the simple elegance of a man with a wrench walking over to fix something, or change the batteries.

I'm not saying that the dust issue is insurmountable, merely that is an important factor that must be addressed in the planning and design of any surface observatory on any body in the solar system with negligible atmosphere (this includes Mars and all the asteroids).

A free-flying observatory has a clear advantage as regards dust, and doesn't lose any significant pointing accuracy, as far as I can see.

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