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NASA's Perseverance rover has spent 1,645 Martian days analyzing the fine and ultrafine dust particles that cling to samples of spacesuit materials carried aboard the vehicle. The study, to be published Tuesday, Oct. 27, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals that some of these particles are small enough to penetrate the lungs and enter the bloodstream, a finding with direct implications for the health of future human crews on Mars.

Martian dust has long been considered one of the major challenges of human exploration of the Red Planet. Unlike the Moon, where the regolith is abrasive but inert, Martian dust is fine, pervasive and chemically reactive, and it readily settles on equipment, suits and surfaces. Quantitative data, however, were lacking on the size distribution of the particles that actually adhere to spacesuit fabrics under real Martian surface conditions.

“NASA's Perseverance rover has spent 1,645 Martian days analyzing the fine and ultrafine dust particles that cling to samples of spacesuit materials carried aboard the vehicle.”