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posted by janrinok on Tuesday February 14 2017, @08:05AM   Printer-friendly
from the atishoo! dept.

Of all the difficulties involved with putting a man on the Moon, "the major issue the Apollo astronauts pointed out was dust, dust, dust," Larry Taylor, director of the Planetary Geosciences Institute, said in an interview with the Soil Science Society of America. The Apollo 11 astronauts griped that the "particles covered everything and a stain remained even after our best attempts to brush it off." An Apollo 12 crew member moaned that the lunar module "had so much dust that when I took my helmet off, I was almost blinded."

Moondust may look soft and pillowy, but it's actually sharp and abrasive, largely the detritus of micrometeorite impacts. With no wind or moving water on the Moon's surface, moondust never erodes. Effectively, no natural process exists on the lunar surface that can round its edges. When astronauts inhale what is essentially finely powdered glass, it becomes a huge health hazard [PDF]: The powder is so jagged that a deep breath could cause it to lodge in the lungs and pierce the alveolar sacs and ducts [PDF], resulting in a lunar version of "stone-grinder's disease," or silicosis, a deadly condition that commonly killed coal miners (and still kills 100 Americans a year). To complicate matters, lunar dust also contains a lot of iron—and this iron-laden dust has recently been implicated in hypertension among Apollo astronauts [PDF].

[...] No astronaut knew more about lunar geology than [Harrison "Jack"] Schmitt. Previously, every other Apollo flyboy had had a background as a military pilot. Schmitt was the first, and only, professional scientist to walk on the Moon. As a result, the press didn't romanticize or hype the geologist astronaut. The New York Times described the 37-year-old as a "quiet, serious bachelor who does not own a television set or a stereo." As he trained to go to the Moon, completing a 53-week flight training course and logging 2100 hours of flying time, the scientist never imagined that he would wind up being allergic to the lunar dust and rocks he had spent years studying from afar.

[...] When the astronauts returned to the lunar module, it took forever to brush the dust off. Schmitt later complained [PDF] of "a lot of irritation to my sinuses and nostrils soon after taking the helmet off ... the dust really bothered my eyes and throat. I was tasting it and eating it." The symptoms lasted for about two hours. His condition was consistent with the findings of Dr. Bill Carpentier, a NASA doctor who had evidence suggesting the dust could cause allergic responses [PDF].


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