DAVID ADAMS writes about the odder side of life…
Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin probably wasn’t thinking about a Moon dustbuster when he walked on the surface of the moon on 20th July, 1969, in a photograph taken by Neil Armstrong. PICTURE: History in HD/Unsplash (image has been cropped)
• There’s not much on the Moon but one thing there is in abundance – moondust. This fine material, known as ‘regolith’, is a problem for Moon explorers, sticking to everything and even damaging equipment. But a research team led by the University of Colorado Boulder has reportedly come up with a solution – a dustbuster specifically designed to counter moondust. The machine uses an electron beam to attack the particles, causing them to “literally jump off” any item its coated, according to one researcher. While the new dustbuster is some way off deployment, it’s believed it may well become a fixture of Moon-related cleaning in the future.
• Cruise ships may be stationary at moorings all around the world but one British man has turned that into a tourism opportunity. Paul Derham, who clocked up some 27 years experience working on cruise ships before moving to his current job running ferries in Dorset, is offering “ghost ship” tours taking in the empty vessels sitting in the English Channel. The two-and-a-half hour tours reportedly get as close as 50 metres to the ships and Derham uses his intimate knowledge of the behemoths to regale sight-seers about life aboard the vessels.
• A Japanese company has unveiled its prototype flying car to the public with a successful four minute test flight. SkyDrive Inc reported the successful flight of its single-seat SD-03 was held at a test ground on 25th August. Measuring just two metres high by four metres wide and four metres long, the aircraft has been “designed to be the world’s smallest electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) model” and requires only as much space on the ground as two parked cars. Meanwhile, still talking flying things, two US pilots have reported encountering a mysterious man wearing a jetpack in the air above LA on Sunday night – one of them encountering the figure at a height of more than 900 metres. The incidents are being investigated.
