Breaking news Dark Side of The Moon ‘Moon Rock’ Limited Edition

Breaking news Omega launches yet another Dark Side Of The Moon Variant....


DSOTM - Moon rock limited edition of 842 pieces in tribute to the 842 lbs of samples the Apollo astronauts returned to earth.

Ok…. April fool but maybe not totally. I love the DSOTM and as most of you know it is mostly made of the super hard ceramic ZrO2 (Zirconium Oxide). Well I am no geologist but anyone looking at the moon can tell that any research will involve a lot of rocks. The moon shares a lot of materials with the earth and even Tranquillityite was eventually found in Australia (which is very similar to the moon in many ways apparently :0). The materials have been through different processes and of course are more exposed to the harsh conditions of space so there are differences in composition and concentrations.

Looking at the science reports for the various missions there was a lot of interest in the large amounts of Zirconium and baddereleyite (a rare zirconium oxide mineral which is the naturally occurring form of ZrO2 (Zirconium Oxide). It turns out Zirconium is one of the commonest of the Moons minor metals with Baddeleyite (Zirconium Oxide ZrO2) being one of the most widespread. It makes me see my DSOTM in a whole new light……It Moon rocks in more ways than one….

Well played sir...hook line and sinker

Thanks...… well the info is real and there is a lot more ZrO2 on the Moon than in Earth rocks.... so a good place for Omega to set up shop :0)

Geez....you had me with that one! well done

To be honest I had planned to put a post up about the abundance of Zirconium Oxide compared to Earth as discovered by Apollo(surprised Omega marketing never picked that one up). It was only at the last minute I realised the date - so it was more fact than fiction really :0)

It would be neat if they could use some Armalcolite ... yep, named after the Apollo 11 astronauts

Edit:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armalcolite

Thanks for the link. It looks like that stuff remains rarer than rocking horse poo on earth and could be important for some of the weird stuff needed for all these super computers and micro sensors. I don't pretend to understand any of the below but it looks impressive / the Apollo missions keep on giving :0)

Armalcolite, a current motivated rare earth ceramic usually available in the moon, had been used for the first time, as dielectric‐type humidity sensors. The armalcolite nanocomposite was prepared using multistep solid‐state sintering under high pressure and a high‐sensitive dielectric sensor was developed for humidity controlling applications. Different concerning phases developed by the proper sintering were analyzed precisely by X‐ray diffraction (XRD) as well as scanning electron microscopy (SEM). At 100 Hz frequency, the obtained dielectric constant was 24 times greater at 95% relative humidity (RH) as compared to 33% RH. The armalcolite‐based sensor showed lower hysteresis (<3.5%), good stability, and faster response (~18 seconds) and recovery (~35 seconds) times compared to conventional humidity sensors. The sensing mechanism of the nanocomposite was categorically determined by the analyzed characteristics parameters such as dielectric constants, normalized loss tangent, and alternating current conductivity properties. This study also confirmed that the whole conduction mechanism was accomplished by electrons or ions and dipoles in the entire RH range. Therefore, the present armalcolite‐based porous nanocomposite would be a potential sensing material for novel humidity sensors