July 2, 2008 -- Astronauts heading to the moon have more to worry about than rocket rides and radiation exposure. Researchers have discovered that breathing on the lunar surface could be hazardous to their health.
The problem is dust. On the moon, it's sharp-edged, chemically active and ubiquitous.
"The dust is electrostatic -- it just sticks to everything," explained University of California San Diego researcher Chantal Darquenne, who is working under a NASA grant to study how moon dust lodges in the lungs.
The first wave of lunar explorers didn't have much to worry about since their forays were relatively short. The longest stay on the moon was a 75-hour visit by Apollo 17 in 1972.
Still, the moonwalkers reported irritation and discomfort from exposure to dust, with symptoms ranging from sneezing, watery eyes and a peculiar smell resembling gunpowder, NASA flight surgeon Jeff Jones told Discovery News.
"One flight surgeon after a mission was doing microbiological sampling of the (space) suits, and when they opened the containers to check the suits, he had an allergic reaction -- irritation, sneezing, irritated mucus membranes in the eyes and nose. Nothing was serious, but it certainly is concerning," Jones said.
NASA plans to land astronauts on the moon by 2020 and eventually leave crews on the lunar surface for up to six months at a time. The space agency is figuring out health standards for dust exposure and developing technologies to reduce risks to crews and equipment.
Darquenne's team, led by physicist Kim Prisk, has been studying how inhaled particles are distributed in the lungs in reduced gravity.
Later this month, the researchers plan to fly rats aboard a NASA plane that can simulate weightlessness by making steep, parabolic dives through the atmosphere. At specific times during the drops, when conditions are most like the moon's gravity (about one-sixth of Earth's), the rats will get blasts of particle-laced air. After the flight, the animals will be euthanized and studied to assess how deeply the particles settled in the lungs.
Earlier studies on humans using non-toxic particles show that in microgravity the particles can reach deeper, more sensitive regions of the lung, Darquenne said.
"Given the fact that the lunar dust seems to be highly toxic, there is a concern that it may be harmful for the people who would be on the moon," she said.
While not a show-stopper for NASA's lunar exploration plans, concerns about dust may prompt special procedures for decontaminating spacesuits and equipment after excursions outside the habitat.
"We're doing research to understand the risks," Jones said. "It's clearly going to be more hazardous than dust on Earth."
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