![]() The device pushes very small dust particles away and also charges larger particles, enabling them to be attracted to an electrically charged plate to keep the dust out. They have designed an electrostatic device that uses a thin strip of an alpha particle source like polonium 210 to bombard dust entering a confined space. NASA scientists are also working on ways to repel dust particles using a small electric charge, sort of like static electricity. (Tribology is the study of wear and friction.) The Apollo 17 astronauts brought dust into the capsule, where it smelled like gunpowder and caused lunar module pilot Harrison Schmitt to have hay fever symptoms, according to a report from a NASA workshop on lunar dust in 2020. The grit clogged the radiators that removed heat and carbon dioxide from space suits and wore a hole in the knee of Cernan’s outer space suit, according to Phil Abel, who researches moon dust as manager of the Tribology and Mechanical Components Branch at NASA’s Glenn Research Center. “I think we can overcome other physiological or physical or mechanical problems, except dust." "I think dust is probably one of our greatest inhibitors to a nominal operation on the moon,” Cernan said. ![]() During a technical briefing when he returned to Earth, Cernan told NASA officials that lunar dust was nothing to sneeze at. Images from the Apollo 17 mission, which focused on geology and featured seven-hour trips in the lunar rover, show astronaut Gene Cernan’s face covered in dust, like some outer space coal miner. Even though Apollo-era astronauts only went outside during a few days on each mission, some reported burning eyes and stuffy nasal passages when they returned from moon walks and took off their dust-covered space suits inside the capsule. Because the dust absorbs sunlight, it can also overheat sensitive electronics.ĭust particles also pose a health risk. Ground-up lunar rock, known as regolith, clogs drills and other delicate instruments, and it's so sharp that it scratches space suits. ![]() As NASA and private space companies prepare to send equipment-and eventually astronauts-back to the moon, they are facing a nearly invisible threat to any future lunar outpost: tiny particles of dust. ![]()
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