[extropy-chat] SPACE: Back to the Moon (?)

[JAY DUGGER]

On Thu, 30 Oct 2003 14:28:06 -0800 (PST)
  Mike Lorrey <mlorrey at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>Firstly, regolith is dirt/sand in consistency, not rock. 
>You apply it
>with something like a snowblower, and you get it off with 
>the same plus
>a broom. (Lunar Sanitation Engineers Guild Local 001 
>Trainee Manual,
>Care of Antique Lunar Modules for Idiots).
>

I don't know much lunar geology. Won't regolith 
composition vary greatly over the surface? I can see this 
holding true some places. There it might be a little 
sweeping to place and remove the stuff.

>Secondly, leaks occur in space modules due to 
>micrometeorite impacts,
>primarily, along with radiation induced metal fatigue, 
>both of which
>regolith will mitigate.
>

Welds don't fail, I suppose? Metal never fatigues due to 
mechanical stress, from launch or temperature variation? 
Such failure might not happen very often, but help lies 
far away.

>Thirdly, since the pressure is on the inside and vacuum 
>is on the
>outside, the proper place to fix any leak is on the 
>inside.
>

I'd feel much safer with a patch on _both_ sides of a hole 
and sealant between the two layers, but I have no 
experience with repairing pressure chambers and so admit 
ignorance.


Jay Dugger     :     Til Eulenspiegel
http://www.owlmirror.net/~duggerj
Sometimes delete serves best.