IEEE Spectrum June, 2014 - 4

BacK StorY_
Editor in chiEf

Susan Hassler, s.hassler@ieee.org
ExEcutivE Editor

Glenn Zorpette, g.zorpette@ieee.org
Editorial dirEctor, digital

Harry Goldstein, h.goldstein@ieee.org
Managing Editor

Elizabeth A. Bretz, e.bretz@ieee.org
SEnior art dirEctor

Mark Montgomery, m.montgomery@ieee.org
SEnior EditorS

Stephen Cass (Resources), cass.s@ieee.org
Erico Guizzo (Digital), e.guizzo@ieee.org
Jean Kumagai, j.kumagai@ieee.org
Samuel K. Moore (News), s.k.moore@ieee.org
Tekla S. Perry, t.perry@ieee.org
Joshua J. Romero (Interactive), j.j.romero@ieee.org
Philip E. Ross, p.ross@ieee.org
David Schneider, d.a.schneider@ieee.org
dEputy art dirEctor Brandon Palacio, b.palacio@ieee.org
photography dirEctor Randi Klett, randi.klett@ieee.org
aSSociatE art dirEctor Erik Vrielink, e.vrielink@ieee.org
aSSociatE EditorS

Ariel Bleicher, a.bleicher@ieee.org
Rachel Courtland, r.courtland@ieee.org
Celia Gorman (Multimedia), celia.gorman@ieee.org
Eliza Strickland, e.strickland@ieee.org
aSSiStant Editor Willie D. Jones, w.jones@ieee.org
SEnior copy Editor Joseph N. Levine, j.levine@ieee.org
copy Editor Michele Kogon, m.kogon@ieee.org
Editorial rESEarchEr Alan Gardner, a.gardner@ieee.org

Planting a Flag

ExEcutivE producEr, SpEctruM radio
aSSiStant producEr, SpEctruM radio

h at's it lik e to plant your feet in moon dust? Earlier
this year, Associate Editor Rachel Courtland got a chance
to find out.
Courtland traveled to Swamp Works, a laboratory
at NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, to
research a story on the future of space exploration for this
month's special issue. There she was allowed to step inside
the facility's Big Box-a glass-walled room packed with
120 metric tons of powdered basaltic rock that stands in for lunar soil.
The rock, waste from a mining operation in Arizona, was selected for its
moon-dust-like mechanical properties. The engineers and physicists at the
laboratory use it to test robotic systems, and they let Courtland step inside
to see what it was like.
Though she was boldly going where no journalist had gone before,
safety was on Courtland's side. For one thing, true lunar regolith is replete
with glassy, suit-shredding shards left by countless asteroid impacts and
never smoothed by wind or water. The "lunar simulant" at Swamp Works
doesn't have those sharp pieces, but it's still considered a health hazard.
The dust particles are small enough to inhale deep into the lungs, and
they're too big for the body's immune system to dislodge. So Courtland
was allowed into the box only after being outfitted with a Tyvek suit,
gloves, boots, and a battery-powered respirator.
Once inside, she took a few bounding, Apollo-inspired steps, planted an
IEEE flag, and tried digging into the surface with a shovel. How did it feel
to be in there? "Otherworldly," Courtland declares. "Like walking on a
giant mountain of talc." n

Jun 2014

north american

SPectrum.ieee.orG

adMiniStrativE aSSiStantS

Ramona Foster, r.foster@ieee.org
Nancy T. Hantman, n.hantman@ieee.org
intErn Theresa Chong
contributing EditorS

Evan Ackerman, Mark Anderson, John Blau, Robert N.
Charette, Peter Fairley, Tam Harbert, Mark Harris, David
Kushner, Robert W. Lucky, Paul McFedries, Prachi Patel,
Richard Stevenson, Lawrence Ulrich, Paul Wallich
dirEctor, pEriodicalS production SErvicES Peter Tuohy
Editorial & WEb production ManagEr Roy Carubia
SEnior ElEctronic layout SpEcialiSt Bonnie Nani
SpEctruM onlinE
WEb production coordinator Jacqueline L. Parker
MultiMEdia production SpEcialiSt Michael Spector
Editorial adviSory board

Susan Hassler, Chair; Gerard A. Alphonse, Francine D. Berman,
Jason Cong*, Sudhir Dixit, Limor Fried, Kenneth Y. Goldberg,
Bin He, Robert Hebner, Chenming Hu*, Grant Jacoby,
Christopher J. James, Norberto Lerendegui, John P. Lewis,
Steve Mann, Jacob Ostergaard, Umit Ozguner, John Rogers,
Jonathan Rothberg, Umar Saif, Gaurav Sharma, Takao Someya,
Sergio Verdú, Jeffrey M. Voas, Kazuo Yano, Larry Zhang*,
Yu Zheng, Kun Zhou
* Chinese-language edition
Editorial / advErtiSing corrESpondEncE

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06.14

citing articlES in iEEE SpEctruM IEEE Spectrum publishes an international and a North American edition, as
indicated at the bottom of each page. Both have the same editorial content, but because of differences in advertising, page
numbers may differ. In citations, you should include the issue designation. For example, Dataflow is in IEEE Spectrum, Vol. 51,
no. 6 (INT), June 2014, p. 84, or in IEEE Spectrum, Vol. 51, no. 6 (NA), June 2014, p. 100.

Sharon Basco
Francesco Ferorelli,

f.ferorelli@ieee.org

http://SPectrum.ieee.orG

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum June, 2014