mightsinkuptotheirchinsinlunar
quicksand.Surveyor 3 ’sfinalresting
placewaswithinwalkingdistance
oftheApollo 12 landingsite,andthe
astronautshadbeeninstructedto
bringpartsofithomeforexamina-
tion.Oneofthem,AlanBean,not-
edatthetimethattheprobe’s
bright-white surface
had,aftertwo-and-
a-halfyearsonthe
moon,turneda
tancolour.
I n 2 0 1 1
M e t z g e r a n d
hiscolleagues
provedthat“it
wasactuallyul-
trafinedustem-
bedded all over
themicrotextureof
thepaint”.Thebigger
questionwashowthedust
gotthere.AsSurveyor 3 la ndedin
thenear-vacuumofthemoon,the
exhaustgasfromitsengineshould
havepusheddustawayfromthe
spacecraft.Metzger’steamcouldn’t
explainit.
Bythatpoint,theConstellation
Programhadbeencancelled.The
newrocketswereoverbudgetand
behindschedule,andtheObama
administrationdecidedthatthispar-
ticularheadachewasbetterlefttothe
privatesector.
Afewyearslater,Metzgerjoined
theplanetarysciencefacultyatthe
University of Central Florida. His
finalprojectatSwampWorkswasto
comeupwithmoondustmitigation
strategies– magnets,reusabledust
filters,artificialelectrostaticcharges
torepelthedustandmakeitfalloff
surfaces,and‘airshowers’or‘wands’
to blastitoffsuits.Evenwithplans
foranAmericanmoonbaseoff
thetable,Metzgersays,it
hadbecome“thecon-
sensusbelief”while
hewas atNASA
that“thebiggest
challengetolu-
naroperationis
t h ed u s t ”.
In2015,long
afterhe’dgiven
uponsolvingthe
mysteryoftheSur-
veyor 3 dustdeposits,
Metzgerheardabouta
seriesofrecentlypublished
papersbyBrianO’Brien.Theycon-
tainedatruly remarkabletheory
aboutmoondust.Asheread,Metzger
realisedthiswasthefirstacceptable
explanationhe’dfoundforhisconun-
drum.Anditwasbased,amazingly,
onthedata from the original DDE
tapes.O’BRIENGOTBACKinthemoondust
gamebyhappenstance.In2006,
whenhewasinhis70s,a friendmen-
tionedreadingsomethingona NASA
websiteaboutthesorrystateofcer-
tainApollotapearchives.O’Brien
decided to track down his ownreels.HAMMERING
BY MICRO-
METEOROIDS
MAKES THE SOIL
FINE AND
GLASSY
117
The Moondust Diaries