"Michael M. Butler" wrote:
> See my reply to Spike. The impression I had was that the quartz etc. was
> getting corroded by organic acids (think of lichen), and that the
Quartz/fused silica is actually less resistant to corrosion than common
borosilicate glass.
> sustenance was from dandruff and urine dump residue, etc. However, I
> don't find any good source for the "outside" stuff. Too bad, sort of.
There's nothing outside which is not sporulated, and even then it has
a damn short half lifetime.
As to atomic oxygen, few 100 km above of Earth surface still sees plenty
of atmosphere. In fact it's enough to see the wind-side surfaces emit a
faint glow (radicals recombining on surfaces, I would imagine). This would
slowly erode anything organic.
In deep space you don't have that, but you've got microparticle impact.
Anywhere with high insolation you got solar wind and shortwave radiation
weathering. Look at asteroid regolith vs. fresh surfaces.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:59:40 MDT