Appollo mission: Why is the sand dropping so fast in less gravitation?

Question

I watched the moon walking footage form the Apollo missions and I have a simple question: I don’t understand why the dust or fine sand always falls immediately to ground while the astronauts which are much heavier have to deal with the lesser gravitation. Isn’t this mass related: the heavier the faster one should drop (Newton) and therefore for the dust with less mass and gravitation it should take much longer ? Just curious? Note I haven’t made my mind up what I should believe about the whole thing. This is a scientific question, ok!

Answer 1

In absence of atmosphere there is no suspension of the tiny particles, which settle down more rapidly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspension_%28chemistry%29

Answer 2

You have it completely wrong, sorry. Mass is irrelevant. In the absence of air resistance everything will fall at the same speed. In fact, on Apollo 15 they demonstrated this with a hammer and feather. Both hit the ground together.

The dust falls rapidly because with no air there is no suspension of the finer particles. On Earth if you kick up dust you get a big cloud that hangs around for a long time. The fact that all the dust, which is fine enough to take bootprints, remember, falls back down immediately it is kicked up is one of the strongest bits of evidence that that was all filmed in a vacuum.

Answer 3

You have Newton wrong - in the absence of air, everything falls/accelerates at the same speed. That's why the fine dust fell quickly. During one Apollo mission, I forget which (it's been awhile, I was only about 12 at the time), an astronaut dropped a hammer and a feather at the same time on camera to demonstrate to us back home here that, without air, all objects fall at the same speed, per Newton's principle. I recall it very vividly, they did hit the ground at the same time, tho both accelerated much more slowly than the hammer would have back here on Earth.

[REPOST] Oops, sorry Galileo, that was your principle.

Answer 4

In a gravitation field the amount of mass is unrelated to the acceleration of gravity, a one ounce people will fall just as fast as ten ton boulder.