Art wrote:
"What really bothers me is that people in the space industry seem not to
have any inclination of the nature of (what) this dust is."

It is believed that in prehistoric times, an ice comet collided with the
earth with so much force*at a spot near the Yucatan Peninsula, that a
chunck was dislodged and hurled into orbit. This collected and compacted
becoming the earth`s moon. The moon should be expected to contain
minerals similar to those on earth. NASA`s missions to the moon
confirmed it wasn`t really green cheese but rather very similar to the
stuff on earth.

NASA`s business is finding and confirming scientific information. NASA
has landed on Mars and sent rovers over its surface in a search for
conditions permitting some sort of life.

On January 21, NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) landed a scientific
package on Titan, one of Saturn`s moons with some similarities to Earth.
It reports back that the atmosphere is 96.3% H2 (hydrogen). Titan is too
far to go for a clean-burning fuel.

The package landed on Titan was thought to need a radio repeater aboard
its orbiting mother-ship to relay data to earth. Crossed signals in this
arrangement did not immediately work. Fortunately, the Robert C. Byrd
radio telescope in Green Bank. W. VA was able to pick up the data
signals directly from the data package on the ground at Titan and there
was much relief on earth.

NASA has used spectrum analyzers on light from many bodies in the cosmos
to determine what atonic elements are associated with various bodies in
space. They now have a good idea of their compositions.

An atom is the smallest particle with unique characteristics. Subatomic
particles are similar regardless of their source.

Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI