When the Apollo astronauts returned from the Moon, the dust that clung to their spacesuits made their throats sore and their eyes water:
The “lunar hay fever”, as NASA astronaut Harrison Schmitt described it during the Apollo 17 mission created symptoms in all 12 people who have stepped on the Moon. From sneezing to nasal congestion, in some cases it took days for the reactions to fade. Inside the spacecraft, the dust smelt like burnt gunpowder.
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Lunar dust has silicate in it, a material commonly found on planetary bodies with volcanic activity. Miners on Earth suffer from inflamed and scarred lungs from inhaling silicate. On the Moon, the dust is so abrasive that it ate away layers of spacesuit boots and destroyed the vacuum seals of Apollo sample containers.
Fine like powder, but sharp like glass. The low gravity of the Moon, one sixth of what we have on Earth, allows tiny particles to stay suspended for longer and penetrate more deeply into the lung.
“Particles 50 times smaller than a human hair can hang around for months inside your lungs. The longer the particle stays, the greater the chance for toxic effects,” explains Kim.
The potential damage from inhaling this dust is unknown but research shows that lunar soil simulants can destroy lung and brain cells after long-term exposure.
On Earth, fine particles tend to smoothen over years of erosion by wind and water, lunar dust however, is not round, but sharp and spiky.
In addition the Moon has no atmosphere and is constantly bombarded by radiation from the Sun that causes the soil to become electrostatically charged.
This charge can be so strong that the dust levitates above the lunar surface, making it even more likely to get inside equipment and people’s lungs.
I’m beginning to think the Moon might be inhospitable.
As someone said, “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.”
Floating Lunar Dust was predicted in the 1950’s by Science Fiction writers.
“…The [Moon's] surface material is one of the lousiest imaginable electrical conductors, so the dust normally on the surface picks up and keeps a charge. And what, dear student, happens to particles carrying like electrical charges?”
“They are repelled from each other.”
From Dust Rag (1956) by Hal Clement.
I may have to pick up The Best of Hal Clement.
Hal Clement is the pseudonym of Harry Clarence Stubbs; he was also an Army Air Corps Reserve officer. He received a B.S. in astronomy from Harvard in 1943, an M.Ed. from Boston University in 1946 and an M.S. in chemistry from Simmons College in 1963.
He flew 35 combat missions as copilot and pilot in B-24 bombers in WWII and retired from service as a full colonel in 1976. He also taught high school science for many years.
Another of his more inventive ideas is the culture tank, from his excellent novel “Needle”. The idea is basically bacteria that produce biofuels from refuse or waste material.