FYI,

"Tackling Moondust for Future Lunar Living"
SPACE.com
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20080528/sc_space/tacklingmoondustforfut
urelunarliving;_ylt=ApcNuOHpWRrmEd0YKqAry3wE1vAI

: Better living on the moon could start with keeping lunar dust out.

: Astronauts living on a permanent moon base will need protection
: against the bleak world's asbestos-like dust, not to mention
: shielding from radiation and a plan to ward off psychological
: demons.

: Those challenges weigh on NASA's plans to send humans back to the
: moon before the end of the next decade, when four-astronaut crews
: would have to learn how to live on the lunar surface in a space the
: size of a small mobile home.

: "It's not just like dirt in your house," said Robert Howard,
: engineer and manager of NASA's Habitability Design Center, of the
: moon's ubiquitous dust.

: Lunar dust began as a problem back when Apollo astronauts found the
: gray powder clinging to everything. Even the vacuum designed to
: clean the spacesuits and spacecraft choked on the stuff.

: Now researchers want to know how much dust would settle in
: astronaut lungs within the moon's reduced gravity of just one sixth
: that of Earth's gravity.

: "In the big picture, the questions are: How much goes into the
: lung? Where does it go? How long does it stay? And how nasty is the
: stuff?" said Kim Prisk, a medical researcher at the University of
: California, San Diego.

: Astronauts may spend up to six months living with the lunar dust
: that resembles fresh-fractured quartz, a highly toxic substance.
: Reduced gravity could keep dust particles suspended in the airways,
: which provides more time for the toxic dust to get deep into the
: lungs and reach the bloodstream.

: Prisk and other researchers of the National Space Biomedical
: Research Institute monitored volunteers who breathed in dust-sized
: particles during flights on NASA's Microgravity Research Aircraft.
: The airplanes can make steep dives to briefly simulate reduced- and
: zero-gravity.

: "With the reduced-gravity flights, we're improving the process of
: assessing environmental exposure to inhaled particles," Kim said.
: "We've learned that tiny particles (less than 2.5 microns or
: 0.0025 millimeters) which are the most significant in terms of
: damage, are greatly affected by alterations in gravity."

: Howard and other NASA engineers already have ideas on how to clear
: out unwanted dust in lunar habitats. Electromagnets could pull or
: drive off lunar dust that has metallic qualities, while air hoses
: could also help.

: Astronauts might even leave their suit outside after attaching to a
: suit port outside the moon base or a lunar rover.

: "The suit never comes into the vehicle," Howard told SPACE.com,
: adding that astronauts could crawl out of the suit and into the
: vehicle after locking into place.

: That would also require a new lunar rover that's more mini-RV
: rather than dune buggy, Howard said.

: Radiation and recreation

: Another hazard to astronaut health would come from dangerously high
: levels of space radiation. Massive solar storms or galactic cosmic
: rays from far off could have fatal consequences for any living
: being on the moon. By contrast, astronauts living on the
: International Space Station and flying on shuttle missions are
: protected from the worst by Earth's magnetic field.

: Previous ideas for radiation countermeasures include using
: electrostatic shielding to protect lunar inhabitants. Howard noted
: that ridges near the moon's South Pole could ideally house an
: underground base. Astronauts could also tote around portable
: shielding inside the habitats in cases of emergency involving
: "short duration, high radiation" events.

: Howard and other engineers have not forgotten the human component
: to living on another world, despite grappling with the technical
: challenges.

: "I'm a habitability person, so I'm focused on the psychological
: well-being," Howard said.

: He pointed to psychological lessons from living on the space
: station and observed the importance of having "a place to call your
: own" as private quarters.

: Learning to live on the moon would ultimately provide a stepping
: stone towards learning to live in other alien environments. Call it
: a dry run for the even more daunting and distant prospect of living
: on Mars.

: "It's just five days away in an emergency, so we can go home if we
: have to," Howard said. "We have to have it right before going to
: Mars."

Mark Reiff