"Lunar hay fever" from moon dust could be more than just a pain for future explorers. The dust turns out to be as fine as powder but as sharp as glass, and all 12 astronauts who have stepped on the moon's surface may have been lucky to return with nothing more than sneezing and nasal congestion.
Possible human dangers from lunar dust are now being addressed as various space agencies contemplate new explorations on the moon, the European Space Agency reported on Wednesday.
"We don't know how bad this dust is," said Kim Prisk, a pulmonary physiologist from the University of California with over 20 years of experience in human spaceflight. "It all comes down to an effort to estimate the degree of risk involved."
The Daily Mail reported the term "lunar hay fever" was coined by NASA astronaut Harrison Schmitt during the Apollo 17 mission. Moon dust clinging to the spacesuits of astronauts landing on the moon caused sore throats and watery eyes.
In some cases, it took days for astronauts to recover, the Daily Mail said. Astronauts complained that inside the spacecraft the dust smelled like burnt gunpowder inside the spacecraft.
The ESA said the low gravity of the moon, which is one-sixth of Earth's gravity, allows tiny dust 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," Prisk said. "The longer the particle stays, the greater the chance for toxic effects."
On top of that, because the moon has no atmosphere, the soil is constantly hit by the sun's radiation, causing it to become electrostatically charged. That allows dust to stay levitated above the lunar surface, making it even more likely to get inside equipment and people's lungs.
ESA said there are some positives to the moon's soil. It can be heated to make bricks for making shelters for astronauts and oxygen can be extracted from the dust to help sustain human missions on the Moon.
NASA announced in May that it has expanded its plans for returning to the moon with commercial and international partners, using robotic missions on the lunar surface, as part of plans for a possible trip to Mars.
Six Apollo missions landed on the moon from 1969 to 1972, returning treasure trove scientific data and some 800 pounds of lunar samples, according to NASA.
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