Astronauts could be at risk for lung diseases if they ever make extended visits to the Moon. That’s the implication of a study that used volcanic soil from northern Arizona as a substitute for lunar dust.
Researchers exposed simulated lung fluid to volcanic soil. They also crushed the soil in an airless environment, as if it were pummeled by tiny meteorites.
The study found the volcanic dust produced more oxidized molecules under those conditions, which can irritate the lungs and over time lead to lung disease.
Martin Schoonen is a geochemist at Stony Brook University in New York and designed the study. “There will be exploration of the Moon, perhaps in staging for going to Mars, that would take people there for an extended period of time,” he says. “First of all, what kind of materials could they be exposed to? What makes these materials possibly harmful to a human being?”
Schoonen says minerals not normally harmful on Earth could be a hazard on the Moon. He says during the Apollo missions lunar dust caused a kind of “extraterrestrial hay fever.”
