A while back, I referenced a story about moondust smelling like gunpowder. Now, it seems, moondust has magnetic properties as well. Each tiny grain of dust contains a few iron particles. The iron’s magnetic properties allow the smallest dust particles to be swept up by magnets. This is a key discovery for NASA engineers who want to return manned expeditions to the lunar surface where dust has plagued the seals of space suits and contaminated mineral samples and just about everything else. Even astronaut Gene Cernan was a moondust mess after a surface excursion (see picture).
April 4, 2006: Thirty-plus years ago on the moon, Apollo astronauts made an important discovery: Moondust can be a major nuisance. The fine powdery grit was everywhere and had a curious way of getting into things. Moondust plugged bolt holes, fouled tools, coated astronauts’ visors and abraded their gloves. Very often while working on the surface, they had to stop what they were doing to clean their cameras and equipment using large–and mostly ineffective–brushes.
Dealing with “the dust problem” is going to be a priority for the next generation of NASA explorers. But how? Professor Larry Taylor, director of the Planetary Geosciences Institute at the University of Tennessee, believes he has an answer: “Magnets.”