Talk:Regolith Separator/@comment-104.33.68.239-20140822013537/@comment-24951265-20140822045941

No, not hardly. The moondust *smelled* like gunpowder, not that it was gunpowder. As complex a sense as scent is, it is fairly simple to fool. And it's not like the elements needed to create gunpowder are rare on the Moon, save for hydrogen. The most likely culprit was, and is, some kind of sulfurous or nitrogenous compound. I'm sure the selenochemists have already worked out just what it was - but the answer is buried in some paper somewhere with some really complicated title.

Charcoal is only one component of gunpowder, after all - you also need potassium nitrate and sulfur.