Reader\'s Digest AU NZ 03.2020

hisoldSILLIACanalysesandpaper

printouts,determinedtopublisha

peer-reviewedarticle.Itappearedin

2009,almost 40 yearsafterhisorigi-

nalmoondustpaper.

O’Brienexamineddatafromthe

DDEthatf lewonApollo 12. Thatde-

tectordifferedfromitspredecessor:

ithadonehorizontalso-

larcellontopandtwo

verticalonesonthe

sides.They’dbeen

blanketedindust

astheastronauts

l o p e d a r o u n d

onmoonwalks,

then blasted

partly clean

whentheLunar

Moduletookoff.

Curiously,though,

one of the vertical

cells became com-

pletelycleanovernight.

O’Brien’sexplanation

for thiswasthatthe

electrostaticchargeofthedust– the

majorsourceofitsstickiness– chang-

esoverthecourseofthelonglunar

day.WhenthesunishighandU Vra-

diationisatitspeak,thedustisextra

charged,andthusextrasticky.When

thesungoesdown,thedustseemsto

losesomeofitsadhesiveforce.IfPete

Conradhadstillbeenonthemoonat

sunset,hemighthavehadbetterluck

vacuumingoffhissuit.

Withintwomonthsofthearticle’s

publication, O’Brien had been made

Theyturnedupina roombeneath
thephysicsdepartmentatPerth’s
CurtinUniversity.Theywerecovered
indust,buttheywerethere,all 172 of
them,eachonecontainingabout 750
metresoftape.Theonlyproblemwas
thattheywereina formatsoobsolete
thatthedatawasbeyondO’Brien’s
reach.Hesentanemailto
NASA,offeringtorepat-
riatethetapes,but
theagencypolitely
declined.
A local ra-
dio journalist
heardrumours
of the discov-
eryandbroad-
casta story.The
news made its
waytoGuyHolm-
es, a physicistwho
founded Spectrum-
Data, which special-
isedindigitisinglarge
volumesofdatafrom
oldtapeformats.Holmesphoned
O’Brienandofferedhishelp,forfree.
Hesaidhewouldstorethetapesina
specialclimate-controlledvaultuntil
theycouldfindtherightmachine
todecodethem.O’Briengratefully
accepted.
EvenifHolmessucceededinhis
search,O’Brienwasn’tsurehe’dever
findfundingtoreanalysethedata.
Buthefelthehadonelastchance
tosettherecordstraightonmoon-
dust.Sohegottowork revisiting

BuzzAldrinsetsupthe

seismometer,withadust

detector attached

PHOTO:NASA

118 March 2020

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