Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

How will Mars crews beat the martian environment, including dust, to perform duties on the Red Planet?
Image credit: Composite image by Ella Maru Studio for the National Academy of Sciences

Planting boots on Mars is hard enough. But getting “breathing room” on the Red Planet without inhaling toxic dust is yet another issue.

Given the outlook that future human crews will strut their right stuff across the Red Planet, NASA assembled earlier this year a Martian Dust Limit Working Group. Their task was to review what’s known and unknown about the toxicological hazard to human crews from exposure Mars dust.

Permissible exposure limit

That review was made to support the establishment of a permissible exposure limit for humans on the Red Planet.

The working group compiled a comprehensive set of expert perspectives regarding Martian dust toxicology, exposure pathways, and mitigation strategies.

Lunar dust haunted Apollo moonwalkers, termed the “dusty dozen.”
Image credit: NASA/Azita Valinia

For more details, go to my new Space.com story – “Mars dust is toxic. How will future astronauts deal with it?” – at:

https://www.space.com/astronomy/mars/mars-dust-is-toxic-how-will-future-astronauts-deal-with-it