NASA astronaut Harrison Schmitt in 1967 on the Apollo 17 mission to the moon called this incomprehensible disease "Lunar hay fever."
All 12 American astronauts who had to walk on the lunar surface fell ill with it.
Symptoms are very similar to common hay fever, people sneeze as if from some kind of allergen and they have a stuffy nose. This can last from one day to several.
Scientists still cannot pinpoint the exact cause, but it is likely contained in the lunar soil, new research has revealed. Even simulations of the composition of the lunar soil in laboratory conditions had a negative effect on the lungs and even the brain when inhaled.
After the astronauts walked on the lunar surface, they returned to their modular unit and took off their spacesuits there. The dust from the spacesuits thus fell into the living compartment and, according to people, it smelled like burnt gunpowder. And then people started having symptoms of "Lunar hay fever."
"We don't know how toxic this dust really is," says Kim Priscus, a lung specialist at the University of California and one of 12 scientists who are taking part in a new study on moon dust, commissioned by the European Space Agency (ESA).
The lunar dust was so abrasive that it severely scratched the outer coating of the suits' boots, and also damaged the vacuum sample containers taken during the Apollo missions.
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The researchers found that lunar dust contains silicates (silicic acid salts) and these materials are commonly found on planetary bodies with volcanic activity. Miners on Earth often suffer from lung disease due to the inhalation of silicates.
On the Moon, due to low gravity, tiny particles hang in the air longer and penetrate deeper into the lungs.
“These particles are 50 times thinner than human hair and can sit inside the lungs for months. And the longer these particles are there, the more likely toxic effects are,”says Kim Priscus.
On Earth, small particles, as a rule, are smoothed out over the years of erosion from wind and water, lunar dust particles, however, are not round, but sharp and prickly, since there is no wind on the moon. In addition, the moon has no atmosphere and is constantly bombarded by radiation from the sun, which makes the lunar soil electrostatically charged.
This tension can be so intense that dust floats above the surface of the moon, making it even easier for dust to enter equipment and the lungs of people.
To test equipment and lunar dust, ESA worked with simulators of Moon dust mined from a volcanic area in Germany. Working with the original is complicated by the fact that there is very little lunar dust and for research these samples will have to be crushed, destroying the original prickly look.
The new study did not touch on human participation, and the effects of simulated moon dust were tested in laboratory mice. And it is reported that in the end, about 90% of the mice died.
The findings of the scientists were disappointing. If they want to send a longer expedition to the moon, and even more so to create a permanent base there, all people will constantly suffer from moon dust, and it may even damage their DNA with long-term exposure until scientists find some solution to the problem.