Dealing With Dust: A Back-to-the-Moon Dilemma
upstart writes in with an IRC submission:
Dealing with dust: A back-to-the-moon dilemma - SpaceNews:
The next chapter in the U.S. human exploration of the moon, the Artemis Project, will dispatch crews there for extended periods of time, building upon Apollo's heritage. Between 1969 and the end of 1972, a dozen astronauts kicked up the powdery regolith, the topside dirt of the moon. But there's one flash back message from the Apollo moonwalkers worth heeding: the place is a Disneyland of dust.
[...] "I think dust is probably one of our greatest inhibitors to a nominal operation on the moon. I think that we can overcome other physiological or physical or mechanical problems except dust," said mission commander Eugene Cernan. "One of the most aggravating, restricting facets of lunar surface exploration is the dust and its adherence to everything no matter what kind of material, whether it be skin, suit material, metal, no matter what it be and its restrictive friction-like action to everything it gets on," said lunar module pilot and geologist, Harrison Schmitt.
Study groups and technologists are assessing ways to lessen the negative impact of lunar dust on the astronauts, their equipment, and surface operations.
NASA Report:
Daniel Winterhalter, et al. Lunar Dust and Its Impact on Human Exploration: A NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) Workshop, NASA Technical Reports Server (Link: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20205008219)
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.