lunarresearchcommunity,“Iknewno-
bodyandnobodyknewme.”Thistime
around,almosteveryoneknewhim.
Headmittedthat,ashewandered
downthelong,endlesscorridorsof
strangeairportsandconferencecom-
plexes,hefelteverybithisadvanced
age.“ButwhenI cameoutofthe
Microsymposium,and forseveral
weeksafter,”hesaid,“Ifeltyoung
again.”Brian O’BrienisduetoreturntoTexas
this year tospeakattheLunarand
PlanetaryInstitute’sconference,‘The
Impact ofLunarDustonHuman
Exploration’. PhilipMetzgerhasbeen
awardeda NASAgranttoresearch
how rocketexhaustblowsdust.
FROM THE BOOKINNERWORLDSOUTERSPACES
BY CERIDWENDOVEY© 2019 CERIDWENDOVEY.
PUBLISHED BYHAMISHHAMILTON.
STORY FIRSTPUBLISHEDINWIRED(US),
JUNE 2019, AS‘TRUEGRIT’.Apollo mission they f lew on. O’Brien
was happy to let me play with shiny
models of China’s Chang’e-3 lander
and Yutu rover on the coffee table,
so long as I first put on white gloves.
They were given to him in Beijing
by the Chinese Academy of Space
Technolog y, which got in touch after
he suggested that the cause of Yutu’s
unexplained immobilisation in 2014,
after its first lunar sunrise, was a dust
storm – and cheekily recommended
that next time they equip the rover
with a dust detector. It seems that
Chang’e-3 made some dust measure-
ments, which the Chinese have confi-
dentially shared with O’Brien.
A few days after O’Brien returned
from Texas, I called him to ask how
the conference had gone. Moondust is
definitely working its way into the zeit-
geist, he was happy to report. Back in
2009, when he gave his first talk to the
Clowning Around
A New Zealand advertising executive facingthebleakprospect
of being fired decided to inject a bit of humourintothesituation
by bringing a professional clown to hisfinalmeeting,for
emotional support, instead of a colleague.JoshThompson,
a copywriter for ad agency FCB New Zealandanda budding
comedian, revealed he had spent $200tohiretheclown,
dubbed Joe, after getting an email from superiorsaskingto
meet to “discuss your role”. The clown subsequentlyblewup
balloon animals and even mimed crying whenThompsonwas
handed his layoff paperwork.
NEW ZEALAND HERALD121
The Moondust Diaries