NASA Perseverance Offers Clues to Protect Crews From Mars Dust Hazards

Dust measurements on Mars

Earlier Mars measurements detected particles down to about 3 micrometers. The rover’s PIXL instrument identified fine particles under 2.5 micrometers and ultrafine particles around 100 nanometers. A human hair is about 70 micrometers wide.

Samples and instruments aboard

Perseverance carries five spacesuit-material swatches, each three-quarters of an inch, or 20 millimeters, square. They are part of a calibration target used to test SHERLOC, an instrument on the rover’s robotic arm.

PIXL measured dust on a Teflon sample and basaltic glass. Since Teflon contains no elements PIXL can directly detect, the signals it recorded from that sample came from dust resting on it. Researchers also studied Teflon and Vectran swatches on SHERLOC’s calibration target.

Dust differs from lunar grains

Wind-driven collisions round Martian dust grains, making them less abrasive than lunar dust. Mars dust is enriched in sulfur, chlorine and iron, contains more silica than lunar dust, and can circulate through the atmosphere during regional and global storms.

During Apollo missions, lunar dust scratched visors, damaged seals and degraded outer spacesuit layers. Some astronauts reported symptoms similar to hay fever.

Implications for future crews

Static electricity appears to affect which particles cling to particular surfaces. The finest particles remained attached through years of rover driving and drilling, and organic polymers such as Teflon readily collected fine dust.

The results could help NASA select materials and protective coatings for suits and habitats. Suitports, which allow astronauts to enter suits attached outside a habitat, and dual-chamber airlocks could limit dust entering living areas.

Lindsay Hays, acting director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, said Perseverance’s measurements can help engineers and flight surgeons improve designs before American astronauts reach Mars. Project scientist Katie Stack Morgan said the mission was built to prepare for human explorers as well as search for ancient microbial life; its preparation work also includes MOXIE and Ingenuity.