Affiliation:
1. Department of Pharmacological Sciences Renaissance School of Medicine Stony Brook University Stony Brook NY USA
2. Department of Geosciences Stony Brook University Stony Brook NY USA
3. National High Magnetic Field Laboratory Florida State University Tallahassee FL USA
4. Departments of Pharmacological Sciences and of Radiation Oncology Renaissance School of Medicine Stony Brook University Stony Brook NY USA
Abstract
AbstractDuring NASA's Apollo missions, inhalation of dust particles from lunar regolith was identified as a potential occupational hazard for astronauts. These fine particles adhered tightly to spacesuits and were unavoidably brought into the living areas of the spacecraft. Apollo astronauts reported that exposure to the dust caused intense respiratory and ocular irritation. This problem is a potential challenge for the Artemis Program, which aims to return humans to the Moon for extended stays in this decade. Since lunar dust is “weathered” by space radiation, solar wind, and the incessant bombardment of micrometeorites, we investigated whether treatment of lunar regolith simulants to mimic space weathering enhanced their toxicity. Two such simulants were employed in this research, Lunar Mare Simulant‐1 (LMS‐1), and Lunar Highlands Simulant‐1 (LHS‐1), which were added to cultures of human lung epithelial cells (A549) to simulate lung exposure to the dusts. In addition to pulverization, previously shown to increase dust toxicity sharply, the simulants were exposed to hydrogen gas at high temperature as a proxy for solar wind exposure. This treatment further increased the toxicity of both simulants, as measured by the disruption of mitochondrial function, and damage to DNA both in mitochondria and in the nucleus. By testing the effects of supplementing the cells with an antioxidant (N‐acetylcysteine), we showed that a substantial component of this toxicity arises from free radicals. It remains to be determined to what extent the radicals arise from the dust itself, as opposed to their active generation by inflammatory processes in the treated cells.
Publisher
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Subject
Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis,Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health,Pollution,Waste Management and Disposal,Water Science and Technology,Epidemiology,Global and Planetary Change