Do space stations/space shuttles get dusty? Does dust happen in space?

Question

I'm watching Mission to Mars and I was wondering if space shuttles or space stations get dusty. Do the astronauts have to clean? They go around with a swiffer or anything? How do they clean the windows, wouldn't the windex or water or whatever go everywhere because the lack of gravity? Thanks

Answer 1

There is a little bit of dust in space, but it's moving very fast relative to the space station.  So fast that when the hit the station, it's a tiny explosion called a micrometeorite impact.

If any dust did come into slow contact with the station, it wouldn't "stick" because there is no moisture or gravity to hold it in place.

Answer 2

Much dust is desquamated human skin.  The air is filtered to remove particles -- in space it wouldn't settle on a surface due to lack of gravity.

Answer 3

There is very little dust within the solar system.

Dust gets generated my collisions of asteroids - but it is very quickly either pused out of the solar system by radiation pressure, or it spirals into the sun due to the Poynting-Robertson effect (which also relates to radiation pressure).

On a planet like Mars the issues are different, there are sandstorms etc - so dust could be a problem

There are other places in space there there is a lot of dust - e.g. Molecular Clouds, around Asymptotic Giant Branch stars), but we are unlikely to ever send probes to then, let alone space stations...

Answer 4

Lol no it wouldnt get dusty because there is no gravitational pull going on inside it so there is no way the dust can stick on to things.

Answer 5

Most dust on Earth (the stuff we have to clean in our houses) comes from humans (dead layers of skin).  Therefore, there would be dust in the space craft.

However, they would not have anyone tracking in dirt from the back yard...  So there would be less.

Water has a surface tension: it tends to cling to the objects that it wets (in general).  Water -- with or without Ammonia) that is sprayed onto a window, would tend to stick to the window -- there might be a few drops that float around for a little while, but they would eventually touch something and cling to it.

Dust, on the other hand, does not tend to stick as much.  Most of it would stay floating in the air (and eventually get filtered).