A few months ago I was on X (the website) and I saw that Phil Metzger (@PhilTill) initiated a citizens science project related to SpaceX’s first Starship launch on 4/20/2023 (I was there). On that first launch, the Super Heavy booster destroyed the pad, throwing concrete and debris hundreds of feet and generally making a mess. Several miles away in Port Isabel, residents reported that fine particulate material fell from the sky soon after the launch. The New York Times even had an article raising the alarm. Metzger, who is an expert in the interaction of rocket exhaust and infrastructure, asked folks to send him samples for analysis to see what was being spread into the environment. I offered to study the samples with Raman spectroscopy, which would be complementary to his lab’s NIR spectra. Kyra and I scanned concrete and fondag pieces that were gathered near the launch site, sand from the nearby beach, and the particulates that residents scraped off of cars and other surfaces. The material that spread to Port Isabel was just sand. Our result also got some media coverage, but the headline made it sound a bit more exciting…
The Anakin memes write themselves.