Following the success of the Artemis II mission, many kids were inspired to go to the Moon. As responsible adults, we should inform our kids that although a trip to the lunar surface sounds like fun, the experience would be worse than breathing asbestos.
The rocky surface of the Moon was shattered into sharp powdery and highly abrasive dust generated by asteroid impacts over the past 4.5 billion years. The lunar dust resembles tiny glass fragments, and poses severe hazards to astronaut health. Any construction project of a sustainable lunar base will inevitably raise dust from the lunar surface. This dust will not settle down quickly because the surface gravity there is about one-sixth of that on Earth.
But there are more risks involved in spending a long period of time on the Moon. Owing to the absence of a lunar atmosphere, variations in surface temperature are not moderated and shadowed regions are vastly cooler than regions illuminated by sunlight or by Earth-shine. The coldest temperature ever recorded on the Moon is 24 degrees above absolute zero, measured by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in permanently shadowed regions within the Hermite Crater near the lunar north pole (as reported here).
Cosmic-rays pose another major health hazard for lunar astronauts, with doses 200 times higher than on Earth, potentially triggering cancer, radiation sickness, and cognitive damage. The Moon’s lack of atmosphere and magnetic field allows energetic particles from the Milky-Way galaxy and the Sun to reach the lunar surface directly. The interaction of cosmic-rays with the lunar soil creates neutrons and gamma-rays which add to the total dose.
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