Scientists Blast Barbie with Moon Dust Cleaning Spray
- Ian Wells
VIVA – Ever since Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon, the dust there proved to be a problem for astronauts in that it coated spacesuits that were difficult to clean and unhealthy if inhaled. However, scientists have come up with solution that could ultimately leave this problem in, well, the dust.
For the experiment, researchers at Washington State University (WSU) dressed Barbie in an emergency spacesuit made of materials similar to those used by NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration).
Then, the team blasted the dolls with liquid nitrogen to test how well the cryogenic fluid could remove moon dust — or, in this case, volcanic ash collected from the 1980 eruption of nearby Mount Saint Helens, which is similar in consistency to lunar dust — from the gear.
They found that spraying the spacesuit-clad dolls with liquid nitrogen not only removed more than 98% of the moon dust substitute but also caused little to no damage to the Kevlar-like suit material.
Ilustrasi Bulan.
- Getty Images
This proved to be a better solution than older methods; Apollo program astronauts would use brushes to swipe the highly abrasive material from their suits post-moonwalk, which would ultimately degrade the material, according to the team's new study, published online February 10 in the journal Acta Astronautica.
Not only is lunar dust annoyingly clingy, the researchers likened it to cleaning up a spilled box of static-charged packaging peanuts but coming into contact with it can prove toxic to human cells and can lead to "lunar hay fever," an illness that causes watery eyes, a sore throat, and sneezing.
That's not exactly something astronauts would want to contend with while conducting an already-risky mission to the moon.
"Moondust is abrasive, electrostatically charged and it gets everywhere. It can work its way into the seals on spacesuits and make them unusable since too much dust causes them to not seal properly. It can also harm the lungs of anyone who encounters it since it's similar to breathing in ground-up fiberglass." lead author Ian Wells, a mechanical engineering student at WSU.
The liquid-nitrogen experiment worked thanks to a phenomenon known as the Leidenfrost effect, which occurs when water hits a surface that's hotter than its boiling point, causing the droplet to skitter across the surface.
