NASA’s Perseverance rover has measured fine and ultrafine dust particles on Mars for 1,645 Martian days using spacesuit-material samples carried aboard the rover. The particles include some small enough to penetrate the lungs and enter the bloodstream. Published Tuesday, Oct. 27, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the findings could help guide spacesuit and habitat design, dust-removal procedures, and crew-health standards for future missions to Mars.
“NASA has a long history of finding creative ways to use data to turn challenges into actionable solutions and answer questions beyond the original purpose of collection,” said Lindsey Hayes, acting director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Dust has been a challenge for surface exploration since the Apollo missions. Perseverance is providing our engineers and flight surgeons with measurements they can use to improve existing designs long before the first American astronauts arrived on Mars.”
Measuring Martian dust
During NASA’s Apollo missions, lunar dust scratched visors, degraded the outer layers of spacesuits, damaged seals, and caused some crew members to report symptoms similar to hay fever.
Martian dust is rounded and worn down by collisions between particles driven by the wind, but it undergoes less wear than lunar dust. It is also rich in sulfur, chlorine, and iron, and contains more silica than Moon dust. Regional and global dust storms could keep the particles circulating in the Martian atmosphere.
Perseverance carries five spacesuit-material samples, each three-quarters of an inch (20 millimeters) square. One sample is part of a calibration target used to test SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals), an instrument on the rover’s robotic arm. Another calibration target, used by PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry), contains samples of Teflon and basaltic glass.
Because Teflon does not contain elements that PIXL can directly detect, the elemental signals measured by the X-ray spectrometer come from dust deposited on the sample.
The team also analyzed swatches of Teflon and Vectran, two materials used in spacesuits, on SHERLOC’s calibration target. NASA sent these spacesuit materials to Mars to study how they withstand conditions on the planet’s surface.
“Although Perseverance’s primary task is to search for signs of ancient microbial life, the mission also aims to help prepare human explorers. Its efforts will include demonstrations of technologies such as: MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment), Ingenuity as well as spacesuit samples,” said Katie Stack Morgan, Perseverance project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
Fine and ultrafine particles
Previous measurements on Mars could resolve dust particles up to about 3 micrometers in diameter. PIXL detected two categories of even smaller particles: microparticles smaller than 2.5 micrometers and ultrafine particles approximately 100 nanometers across. A human hair is approximately 70 micrometers wide, making a 100-nanometer particle about 700 times thinner.
Particles on PIXL’s Teflon target and SHERLOC’s Vectran swatches averaged about 2 micrometers. On PIXL’s basaltic glass and SHERLOC’s Teflon specimens, dust particles ranged from approximately 100 to 300 nanometers.
Static electricity appears to influence which particle sizes adhere to different surfaces. Dust particles become electrically charged as they collide in the air, while different materials on the calibration targets attract particles of different sizes. The finest particles remained attached through years of rover operations and drilling.
Organic polymers such as the Teflon samples used in SHERLOC’s spacesuit-material test are commonly used in the outer layers of spacesuits. The results indicate that these materials readily collect fine dust.
“The existence of Martian dust of such ultrafine size has been predicted for a long time, but PIXL gives us the opportunity to measure it directly on Mars,” said Scott VanBommel, a Perseverance scientist at Washington University in St. Louis and lead author of the paper. “Large clumps, like Martian dust, are shaken off over time. But the smallest particles remain behind, and they pose the greatest challenge to human support systems.”
Chemically, the dust matches the iron- and sulfur-rich composition measured by previous missions. PIXL also found that it was rich in phosphorus and detected signs of calcium sulfate.
Potential risks for astronauts
On Earth, airborne particles or particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers have been linked to a range of negative health effects because they can penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream. Research has also shown that ultrafine particles measuring 100 nanometers or less can travel along the olfactory nerve from the nasal cavity to the brain.
Martian dust is primarily composed of silicate minerals and contains chemically reactive compounds such as perchlorate, which inhibits thyroid function, and reactive iron, which causes cell damage. Scientists believe the health risks will depend on the amount of dust and the duration of exposure.
The PIXL results are the first in-situ measurements of fine and ultrafine particles on Mars. They could support efforts to establish indoor dust-exposure limits for astronauts, develop safe work practices, and create methods for removing dust during Mars exploration.
Designing for extraterrestrial dust
The finding that some materials attract less dust than others could help guide the selection of materials and protective coatings for future spacesuits and habitats. One possible design is a suit port, which would allow astronauts to enter suits attached to the outside of their living quarters. A dual-chamber airlock could potentially reduce the amount of dust brought into the crew’s living spaces.
NASA is also using ground facilities and lunar missions to test technologies for future Mars exploration. In March 2025, the agency tested an electromagnetic dust shield that uses electric fields to remove lunar regolith from lunar glass and thermal emitters. Developed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the shield traveled to the Moon aboard Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1.
At NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, engineers at the Lunar Development Test Facility are using a vacuum chamber and lunar-regolith simulants to test spacesuit components, mechanisms, and handheld lunar electrostatic dust-mitigation tools ahead of the Artemis lunar exploration mission.
Managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the construction and operations of the Perseverance rover on behalf of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate as part of the agency’s Mars Exploration Program portfolio. JPL also built the PIXL and SHERLOC instruments.
Media contacts
DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
818-393-9011
[email protected]
Karen Fox / Alana Johnson
NASA Headquarters, Washington
240-285-5155 / 202-672-4780
[email protected] / [email protected]
2026-076
Source: www.nasa.gov