Moon too static for astronauts?

[NetSnake]

http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070129/full/070129-16.html

Lunar settlements could face high-voltage sparks.
Philip Ball


Shocking: Charged Moon dust could short-circuit equipment.

NASA
Lunar colonists could be in for a nasty shock — literally. A team of US scientists has found that the Moon's surface can become charged with up to several thousand volts of static electricity1.

This charging could release sparks that disable electronic equipment — including monitors, space buggies or even the front door of a Moon base. And it could cause dust clouds that clogs up instruments. What's worse, it can be caused by bad weather in space: just when astronauts need their equipment to give them warning and allow them to shelter from the radiation.

But not everyone sees the news as bad. "I'm overjoyed this work was carried out," says Dale Ferguson, a scientist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. "Data about the surface charging of the Moon was sorely lacking," he explains.

I wonder if this could be used as an energy source...

[Dr Mordrid]

You would think if this were really a problem all the probes & Apollo would have run into it

In any case, ever hear of shielding? Faraday cages & their relation can be small.

[Jon P. Inghram]

You would think if this were really a problem all the probes & Apollo would have run into it

In any case, ever hear of shielding? Faraday cages & their relation can be small.

Oh, you're laughing now, but in the future when a lunar nuclear waste storage site explodes due to built-up static electricity and tosses the Moon out of orbit who'll be the one laughing?

[Dr Mordrid]

Since it takes neutrons and not electrons to cause a nuke to go off I think we're safe

[Brian Ellis]

"charged with up to several thousand volts of static electricity" with respect to what? This is a totally meaningless piece of crap. You cannot have a potential difference (which is measured in volts) on a surface. If you walk on a synthetic carpet and touch a metal door handle, you may be shocked. Why, because the friction of your shoes on the insulating carpet has generated a static charge which is then discharged to the door handle at ground potential. The moon's surface is at it's own ground potential and can do no harm. The earth's ground potential may be a megavolts different from that of Alpha Centauri, for all I know, but it matters not a whit.

Well, let me tell you something: aircraft, because of their friction through the air, and other causes, are often tens or hundreds of thousands of volts from earth's ground potential by the time they land and this is discharged through the tyres on first touchdown (this is why the tyres are electrically conductive). Does this bugger up the electronics? Of course not. In fact, once it has touched down, the aircraft acts as its own Faraday cage, the same as a spaceship would landing on the moon. There may be a potential difference between the moon and earth, but there is no practical difference!

I'm surprised that Nature would publish such codswallop without some very serious editing.