Regolith
By: Tabitha Guenther
Main Components
- Rocks
- Sand
- Dust
- Some Elements
Regolith
Rocks
Most rocks are smaller than these. They create a harder surface than just having the dust and sand.
Dust & Sand
These make the surface soft and since there is no wind in outer space, you won't get a mouthful of sand!
Elements
While some of these are radioactive, let's just look at the ones found in the soil.
Elements!!!
Elements Found In Soil
By weight, the lunar crust is 46% oxygen. For every 10,000 tons of top soil there is one ton of Hydrogen. There is carbon, nitrogen, and helium, but there are less amounts. There is a tiny fraction of helium-3. With idealfuel that people haven't used yet, you could make a fusion reactor (still-to-be-engineered).
Isotopic Variability of Nitrogen
It's related to heavy noble gases. Nitrogen isotopic composition mixing with solar system objects creates two different kinds of Nitrogen. One is solar Nitrogen and the other is fractioned Nitrogen (Interstellar chemical process). Even after 25 years of knowing about Nitrogen we still lack a reasonable explanation to the Isotopic variability of Nitrogen in lunar regolith.