Morphology and Physical Characteristics of Apollo 17 Dust Particles

From the experiences during the Apollo missions, it is clear that the lunar dust (<20 μm portion of regolith) was deleterious: causing seal failures, particularly to the rock boxes sealed at 10^–12 torr; abrasively cutting through fabric layers; scratching of astronauts' sun visors; contaminating the breathing air in the lunar modules, etc. Because of these unusual and extreme properties of lunar dust, particularly as they apply to the toxicological effects on astronauts, methods for abatement of lunar dust must be addressed before any human presence on the Moon can be fully evaluated. As part of this endeavor, we have conducted a morphological (shape, size, abundance) study of Apollo 17 dust sample 70051. It was determined that the dust particles consist mainly of impact-produced glass, with complicated morphologies, extensive surface areas per grain, and sharp, jagged edges. Importantly, many grains contain elaborate vesicular textures, representing minute agglutinates. These data have profound implications for dust mitigation and in-situ resource utilization on the Moon.