This is from the third installment of Science@NASA’s Apollo Chronicles.
NASA – Apollo Chronicles: The Smell of Moondust
January 30, 2006: Moondust. “I wish I could send you some,” says Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan. Just a thimbleful scooped fresh off the lunar surface. “It’s amazing stuff.”
Feel it—it’s soft like snow, yet strangely abrasive.
Taste it—”not half bad,” according to Apollo 16 astronaut John Young.
Sniff it—”it smells like spent gunpowder,” says Cernan.
How do you sniff moondust?
Right: At the end of a long day on the moon, Apollo 17 astronaut Gene cernan rests inside the lunar module Challenger. Note the smudges of dust on his longjohns and forehead. Photo credit: Jack Schmitt.
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