Sometimes, the smallest things can be one of the biggest headaches. During the Apollo missions of 1969-72, the tiny particles of lunar dust turned out to be a major issue. Described as the finest talc but as rough as sandpaper, it also has properties that may be dangerous for both men and machines. It has been cited as a bigger problem for future astronauts than radiation by some scientists.
The lunar surface is covered in a thin layer of dust that has been created by the bombardment of meteorites and micrometeorites over millions of years. Check out my article about trash left on the moon here.
These smash into the moon’s surface at speeds of about 12 miles or 20 kilometers per second, heating up and pulverizing rocks and dirt, which contains silica and metals such as iron. Some of the dust is melted in the extreme heat of the impact, creating tiny glass beads as the silicon melts, cools, and falls back to the surface.
There is no weathering on the moon.
This continual smashing shatters the silica and other minerals to produce finer and finer grains of dust. But because there is no weathering on the moon like there is here on Earth, the edges of these tiny shards are not only very hard but also very sharp and jagged, making them incredibly abrasive and potentially damaging to anything they stick to.
NASA had an idea about the dust before the man missions from the previous survey Landers, but it quickly became apparent that once men were there, that would be far more of a problem than was first thought. In fact, before the mission started, some scientists thought that because the dust had not been in contact with oxygen, it might spontaneously combust if exposed to air.
Before Apollo 11 took off from the moon, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong had to carry out a rather ad-hoc experiment to see if Dust was safe to bring back into the lunar lander in an air environment.
They grabbed a sample of dust and went back to the lander. They placed some of it on the engine cover of the ascent module. They then closed the hatch and re-pressurized the cabin while looking out to see if the dust had turned to smoke. Luckily, it didn’t, and they got on with the departure. Aldrin said later that if it had, they would have stopped the pressurization, opened the hatch, and thrown it out as quickly as possible.
We’ve seen astronauts bouncing around on the moon’s surface and getting covered in dust, but they also found that it sticks to anything it comes in contact with.
Difficult moving
From the sun visors on the helmet to gauges, dials, and more important things like seals on the spaces and containers to bring back the rock samples. The bombardment of charged particles electrically charges the dust from the Sun. This is what makes it stick to anything it lands on.
During Apollo 17, crew members Harrison “Jack” Schmitt and Gene Cernan reported that the dust was making it difficult for them to move their arms around during the moonwalk because it got into the joints of their spacesuits. It also scratched the gold visors on the helmets to such an extent when they tried to wipe it off that it made it difficult to see, a bit like trying to clean glass with Sandpaper.
The same applies to cameras and other optical surfaces, which had to be cleaned with a small camera cleaning brush to avoid damage. It also damaged the seals between the gloves and the spacesuit locking ring, so they started to slowly leak air in the vacuum on the moon’s surface.
How many (in kilo) lunar rock samples did apollo missions bring back?
Just how abrasive the dust was was revealed when it wore through almost three layers of Kevlar-like material on Schmitt’s moon boot, and he made his way around the lunar surface.
The Apollo missions brought back 382 kilograms of rock samples. These were placed into sealed containers to keep the low-pressure atmosphere of the moon in with the samples. However, when they got back to earth, every sample box leaked air from the cabin because the dust had damaged the seals on the containers.
There was also no way to isolate the crew from the dust in the lander’s cabin either. There were no airlocks and nowhere to change out of these suits other than in the cabin.
When the astronauts returned to the lander and re-pressurized the cabin on every mission, they noticed that some of the dust became airborne and floated around the cabin, not only coaching the inside of the craft but also breathing it in.
Apollo 17
They said it smelled like spent gunpowder or wet ashes in a fire. After the mission, Gene Cernan said it took about three months for the embedded dust to grow out from under his fingernails. On Apollo 17, Schmitt said he felt congested and complained of”lunar dust hay fever,” but the symptoms disappeared the next day.
Because of this, the crews were put into quarantine when I first returned to Earth because no one knew if there were any biological threats on the moon or in the dust. Although Apollo 12 has been discontinued, it has been confirmed from examination on Earth it posed no bacterial or viral risks.
Tiny moondust particles
Although the dust is mostly silica and non-poisonous, the particles’ tiny size posed a similar problem discovered when miners and tunnels on earth had become ill and died of silicosis years after dry drilling. Silicosis is where the tiny dust particles are so small that they get into the very deepest parts of the lung and cannot be coughed out.
The immune system’s white blood cells cluster around the particles, and the victim eventually dies as the lungs become increasingly ineffective. The Apollo 12 mission also revealed another problem with the dust and the lack of a lunar atmosphere.
The astronauts detached the camera.
When they landed, they were about 180 meters or 600 feet from an earlier Surveyor 3 Lander, which had been there for a couple of years. The Apollo 12 astronauts detached the camera and mechanical scoop from the Surveyor Lander to return to Earth.
Whilst doing it, they noticed the structure of the lander had been darkened by the cosmic radiation of the time, but some areas had actively been sandblasted clean by the dust blown out by the rocket engine exhaust from Apollo 12 as it landed. This was confirmed when the camera and mechanical scooper were examined back on earth, and the high-speed particles of dust had damaged them.
It’s now believed that some of the smallest particles of dust that were rejected by a blast from the engine, which can also be seen from the landing footage, could have been blown halfway around the moon due to the lack of atmospheric resistance. However, most of it would have only gone as far as high-side craters or nearby mountain ranges before it was stopped.
Future manned journeys to the moon
It’s estimated that the lunar soil or Regolith and the dust had been traveling at about 1,300 feet or 400 meters per second, which is as fast as a bullet from a gun. This means that buildings or even astronauts could cause damage by this sandblasting effect even at some distance away in the future craft landing near other structures.
For future manned journeys to the moon, NASA‘s scientists worldwide have been working on ways to control the dust using technologies like film coating that the dust won’t stick to and shaking the dust off with an electric charge.
The dust particles contained tiny pieces of nanophase iron or pure iron, which is affected by the magnetic field. This could be used to extract dust from the air infiltration systems. So, if you thought that the dust in your house was a pain, just be thankful it’s not lunar dust.
Check out this article that reveals the inside of the Apollo Saturn V rocket and its significant components. See for yourself these fantastic drawings. You will be amazed.
