Lunar Dust: A Major Worry for Moon Visitors

smooth wombat writes "Wired has a story which talks about a danger to possible future inhabitants of the Moon that is rarely brought up: the highly abrasive lunar dust. Unlike Earth, the Moon has no erosive capabilities to smooth the edges of rocks or dust. As a result the lunar dust has arms that stick out, like Velcro, and sticks to everything. As the astronauts who walked on the moon found out, the dust scratched lenses and corroded seals within hours. Some of the particles are only microns across which means once they get into your lungs, they stay there. This could cause a lung disease similar to silicosis."

Comments

Praise Allah

[Mr. Underbridge]

Sounds like the makings of a "dirty bomb".

Yeah, that would work great. Put kitty litter in a bomb, blow it up, and hope people inhale it. Gee Muhammed, we could blow them up or cause minor respiratory distress. That'll teach those Yankee infidels!

We went to the moon?

[bardothodal]

I can't believe people still believe this. C'mon people , a week after NASA failed to keep a monkey alive for more than 9 days in Earth orbit , Apollo 11 launched for the Moon. I know astronauts are brave but no one is that brave. "Bonny, a pigtailed macaque, flew on Biosatellite 3, a mission which lasted from 29 June to 8 July, 1969. This was the first multi-day monkey flight - but came after longer human spaceflights were common. He died within a day of landing."