Flammability of moondust

I note from the BBC News site
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3429857.stm today that "moondust
is composed of 40 per cent oxygen". Also that ""One of the most
restricting facets of lunar exploration is the dust and its adherence
to everything, no matter what kind of material," remembered Eugene
Cernan after Apollo 17. "Simple things like the bag locks and the lock
which held the pallet on the Rover began not only to malfunction but
not to function at all.""

This prompted a brief reflection on whether any flammability tests
have been done on moondust in a human-typical atmosphere such as you'd
find inside Moonbase buildings. Unless moondust was proved utterly
inert, I might feel rather nervous living in close proximity to such a
potentially strong oxidising agent !

Nick

Nick Fisher wrote:

I note from the BBC News site
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3429857.stm today that "moondust
is composed of 40 per cent oxygen". Also that ""One of the most
restricting facets of lunar exploration is the dust and its adherence
to everything, no matter what kind of material," remembered Eugene
Cernan after Apollo 17. "Simple things like the bag locks and the lock
which held the pallet on the Rover began not only to malfunction but
not to function at all.""

This prompted a brief reflection on whether any flammability tests
have been done on moondust in a human-typical atmosphere such as you'd
find inside Moonbase buildings. Unless moondust was proved utterly
inert, I might feel rather nervous living in close proximity to such a
potentially strong oxidising agent !

Earthdust, for instance quartz sand, is over 50 mass percent oxygen,
and IIRC the crust as a whole is 47 mass percent.
So moondust brought into the oxidizing atmosphere we are used to
is likely to be oxygen-deficient, and slowly take up oxygen,
not give it.


--- Graham Cowan
http://www.eagle.ca/~gcowan/boron_blast.html --
100 internal combustion watt-hours in a baby's fist

(Nick Fisher) writes:

I note from the BBC News site
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3429857.stm today that "moondust
is composed of 40 per cent oxygen".

So are =MOST= rocks. The main components of moon dust, like non-organic
earth dust, are aluminum and silicon _OXIDES_. Notice any earth dust
bursting into flame, lately ???


Also that ""One of the most restricting facets of lunar exploration is
the dust and its adherence to everything, no matter what kind of
material," remembered Eugene Cernan after Apollo 17. "Simple things like
the bag locks and the lock which held the pallet on the Rover began not
only to malfunction but not to function at all.""

This prompted a brief reflection on whether any flammability tests
have been done on moondust in a human-typical atmosphere such as you'd
find inside Moonbase buildings. Unless moondust was proved utterly
inert, I might feel rather nervous living in close proximity to such a
potentially strong oxidising agent !

You are confusing "oxidizing agent" with "metal and silicon oxides,"
which are the _END PRODUCTS_ of oxidation.

Most rocks contain a great deal of oxygen, chemically bound to silicon and
to "metals;" far from being "oxidizing," rocks are typically largely inert.


-- Gordon D. Pusch

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