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I read that "Moon Dust" is ranked by NASA as the number one challenge to building a permanent lunar base. Wouldn't it be possible, though, to send some type of lunar excavators to clear a large zone of all lunar dust before sending any other equipment? Since there's no wind on the moon, there's no way for the dust to move on its own once it's settled. Is the layer of dust too thick (all over the moon) for this to be practical?

Devon Allary
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    There's no air to stop it moving. Dust kicked up by impacts elsewhere will ballistically enter the clean zone. –  Apr 04 '19 at 15:16
  • @JCRM maybe a s̶n̶o̶w̶b̶l̶o̶w̶e̶r̶ regolithblower is a better model than the Lunba? – uhoh Apr 04 '19 at 15:39
  • We only got very, very few information about dust thickness from the few Apollo landing sites. Dust was not too thick for manned moon buggies and unmanned rovers. – Uwe Apr 04 '19 at 15:54
  • The cost would most likely be too prohibitive. Aolso, where and how would it be stored? As a large dump in what would become a virtual no go zone? The dust would need to be immobilized by something similar to wetting gel or concrete. That too would be very expensive for the initial cost & possible periodic maintenance (reapplication) costs. – Fred Apr 04 '19 at 16:59
  • @Fred an impact crater (or several) would probably make a good place to dump the lunar dust. It wouldn't need to be immobilized because nothing could disturb it after it was dumped. The cost might be high, but the cost to repair equipment damaged by lunar dust is also high. – Devon Allary Apr 04 '19 at 17:42
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    This is the equivalent of clearing topsoil on Earth down to bedrock. In some places it might be a few feet, in others, you may end up digging a crater before you hit bedrock and a crater may not be an optimal building site. The issue is finding the optimal building site which would have minimal regolith to clear and stabilize the surrounding dust so you're not constantly clearing it away. – gwally Apr 04 '19 at 18:03
  • But if you clear away all the moon dust in your area, new moon dust will be produced by micro meteroits and thermal cycling of bedrock surface. When you level the remaining bedrock, more dust is produced. – Uwe Apr 04 '19 at 20:54
  • @DevonAllary Nothing would disturb the dumped lunar dust? Any impact to the dust deposit will do. The probability is low, but you don't know when it will happen. The whole surface of the moon consists of larger and smaller impact craters. Many small craters hidden by moon dust. – Uwe Apr 04 '19 at 21:00
  • @gwally I think Earth topsoil is a bad analogy. There's no flowing water or wind on the Moon, so there are no transport processes that could result in a crater "filling in" with a huge depth of regolith. Even at the time of the first Moon landing scientists were pretty confident that the regolith wouldn't be too deep. – uhoh Apr 05 '19 at 00:22
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    @Uwe so every thousand years you go out with a broom and sweep it clean again. – uhoh Apr 05 '19 at 00:23
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    "Here's a broom, kid. Knock yourself out." – Ingolifs Apr 05 '19 at 03:25
  • @uhoh You're right, there's no water, no wind, but there is gravity and she always wins. If you have to dig down into regolith, you need to shore up the sides or gravity will push those sides down and fill in the void. – gwally Apr 05 '19 at 06:40
  • @gwally How thick does lunar regolith ever get? Has the thickness been measured and mapped by satellite? – uhoh Apr 05 '19 at 07:51

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Clearing away all the dust is more difficult than it sounds.

  1. It's not a neat dust layer on a solid floor, particles of all sizes are mixed with each other. There are lots of nooks and crannies you can't reach with a brush.

  2. the dust carries an electrostatic charge, making it difficult to handle (it sticks to everything including your cleaning implement).

  3. Meteorite impacts spread new dust around, so your work is never done.

  4. There may be another dust transport mechanism: small dust can levitate and come down somewhere else.

Dust mitigation is an area of research for NASA. One possible solution is to use a microwave generator to melt the dust into a hard layer.

Hobbes
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