Martian dust may be more harmful to astronauts than the trip itself. (Photo by StudyFinds on Shutterstock AI Generator)
In a nutshell
- Martian dust poses serious health risks, especially to astronauts’ lungs, with particles small enough to penetrate deep into the respiratory system and potentially cause irreversible diseases like silicosis and aplastic anemia.
- The dust is chemically hazardous, containing reactive compounds like perchlorates, silica, nanophase iron, and trace toxic metals that can disrupt thyroid function, damage tissues, and even increase infection risk due to weakened immune defenses in space.
- Prevention is critical, as many dust-related conditions have no cure. Protective technologies like dust-repelling suits, habitat filters, and nutritional countermeasures are essential to keep astronauts safe on a multi-year Mars mission.
LOS ANGELES — NASA wants to put boots on Mars in the coming decades. But before the first astronauts take that historic step, scientists are warning about an overlooked threat that could derail these ambitious plans: the dust covering the Martian surface.
A new scientific review in the journal GeoHealth warns that the fine particles blanketing Mars might seriously harm human explorers. The medical researchers, aerospace engineers, and planetary scientists from various American universities behind the study draw worrying connections between what happened to Apollo astronauts exposed to lunar dust and what future Mars travelers might experience, potentially with far worse consequences.
According to the authors, Mars dust particles are worryingly small, highly oxidative, and packed with chemicals that could damage the human body, especially the lungs. Unlike Earth dust, which gets worn down by wind and water, Martian particles have remained sharp and irregular, making them perfect for penetrating sensitive tissues.
The Apollo missions offered an early warning about space dust problems. Astronauts who visited the Moon complained about irritated eyes, sore throats, and coughing fits after dust stuck to their spacesuits and contaminated their living spaces. But those missions lasted just days.
Mars expeditions would be different, stretching for months or years with ongoing dust exposure. What’s more, the 40-minute communication delay between Earth and Mars means medical emergencies would need handling without immediate help from mission control. This isolation makes both the chances and consequences of dust-related illnesses much worse.
What Makes Mars Dust Toxic
What exactly makes Mars dust so dangerous? Based on rover and orbiter data, scientists have identified several harmful components. These include perchlorates (oxygen-rich compounds), silica, iron-rich particles, and gypsum, plus smaller amounts of potentially toxic metals including chromium, beryllium, arsenic, and cadmium.
Perchlorates might be the most immediately concerning. These chemicals, found all over Mars, can interfere with thyroid function by competing with iodide, potentially causing aplastic anemia, where the body stops producing enough new blood cells. In one Earth-based case, a patient given high doses of perchlorate developed severe anemia that led to infection susceptibility. Despite treatment with steroids and antibiotics, the patient died from a lung infection.
Nearly half of Mars dust consists of silica, which on Earth is known to cause silicosis, an incurable lung disease that progressively scars lung tissue. The Martian silica particles measure about 3 micrometers across, small enough to bypass the body’s defenses and reach deep into the lungs, where they trigger inflammation and scarring.
The iron compounds that give Mars its reddish color create another health threat. When these particles contact human tissue, they generate reactive oxygen species that damage cells. The excess iron might also make infections worse, as many disease-causing bacteria use iron to multiply inside the human body, particularly troubling since spaceflight already weakens astronauts’ immune systems.
Mars also experiences planet-wide dust storms that dramatically boost airborne particle levels. During these events, visibility drops to almost nothing while dust concentration in the atmosphere rises dramatically. Such conditions would make avoiding exposure nearly impossible during surface operations.
The vast distance from Earth magnifies these health risks. Apollo astronauts could head home quickly if they got sick, but Mars-bound crews would be committed to their mission for its entire duration, potentially two to three years. This reality makes prevention the main strategy, with treatment limited to whatever medications and equipment traveled from Earth.
Better spacesuit designs with self-cleaning abilities, robust air filters in habitats, and electrostatic devices to repel dust should form the first line of defense. For any dust that gets through, dietary supplements like potassium iodide might help protect against perchlorates, while vitamin C could offer some defense against chromium toxicity.
Unfortunately, many potential dust-caused diseases, especially silicosis and other forms of lung scarring, have no effective treatments beyond supportive care. This is why preventing exposure matters so much.
Most of these diseases target the breathing system, potentially causing different types of restrictive lung disease. Combined with the increased radiation during deep space travel and the body changes caused by low gravity, Mars dust could create a perfect storm of health problems.
Planning for Safety: The Road to Mars
As NASA’s Artemis program works to build a lasting human presence on the Moon, these lunar missions will test technologies for Mars trips, including dust protection systems. Additionally, the Mars Sample Return mission, though currently being reevaluated, could bring actual Martian material to Earth labs as early as the mid-to-late 2030s, allowing scientists to study the dust’s properties and toxicity directly.
For now, the authors stress that while human exploration of Mars represents an extraordinary potential achievement, it also brings unprecedented health challenges. Meeting these challenges will require experts across many fields, from geology and engineering to medicine and toxicology, working together to ensure astronauts can explore Mars safely. As we prepare to send people farther from Earth than ever before, addressing these risks is essential for keeping crews alive.
Paper Summary
Methodology
The team behind this research didn’t run new experiments. Instead, they looked at existing scientific data from multiple fields. They examined information from past Mars missions, like the Phoenix lander’s discovery of perchlorates and Curiosity rover findings at Gale Crater. Then they compared Martian soil compositions with medical studies showing how similar substances affect humans on Earth. They looked closely at cases of workers exposed to silica, perchlorates, and various heavy metals in industrial settings to predict what might happen to astronauts. The researchers also reviewed reports from Apollo astronauts who experienced health issues after contact with Moon dust, using these accounts to establish patterns that might apply to Mars exploration.
Results
The review uncovered several major health concerns with Mars dust. The particles’ average size—about 3 micrometers—means they can get past the body’s protective mechanisms and settle deep in lung tissue. Perchlorates found across Mars can disrupt thyroid function and potentially cause aplastic anemia, increasing infection risk and bleeding. With silica making up almost 45% of Mars dust by weight, astronauts face danger from silicosis—an irreversible lung scarring disease. Iron-rich particles in the dust may create harmful reactive compounds when touching human tissue while also potentially worsening infections by supplying iron that bacteria can use. The researchers found most dust-related diseases would mainly affect the lungs, with outcomes ranging from mild irritation to life-threatening conditions. Many dust components were identified as cancer-causing. The team also noted that multiple toxic elements together might cause worse health effects than any single exposure, especially when combined with other spaceflight hazards like radiation and low gravity.
Limitations
The authors point out several important limitations to their work. No one has directly analyzed Mars dust in Earth labs, forcing researchers to rely on remote data and models. This means we don’t know the exact makeup, shape, size distribution, and consistency of dust across the planet’s surface. While rovers and orbiters have provided good information, we can only estimate toxicity properties until actual samples return to Earth. Also, the effects of exposure in Mars’ environment—with lower gravity, different air pressure, and higher radiation—might differ from what happens on Earth. The researchers mostly looked at individual hazards, but astronauts would face complex mixtures of many substances at once. Since no humans have yet encountered Mars dust, the team’s predictions come from similar Earth exposures, which might not perfectly translate to Mars conditions. Finally, there’s uncertainty about concentrations of certain toxic metals like chromium, beryllium, arsenic, and cadmium, with some experts debating how common they are in Martian soil.
Funding and Disclosures
This study appeared as an open-access article under the Creative Commons Attribution License, making the findings freely available to scientists and the public. The research team included members from the Keck School of Medicine at USC, the University of Colorado’s Department of Aerospace Engineering, NASA’s Johnson Space Center, UCLA Space Medicine, and the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. The authors reported no conflicts of interest related to this study. While the paper didn’t explicitly state funding sources, the institutional affiliations suggest support came from a mix of academic, government, and space agency resources, reflecting the cross-disciplinary nature of the work. The acknowledgments thanked the journal editor and two anonymous reviewers for feedback that improved the manuscript.
Publication Information
This research review, “Potential Health Impacts, Treatments, and Countermeasures of Martian Dust on Future Human Space Exploration,” appeared in the journal GeoHealth (Volume 9) in 2025. The journal received the paper on September 17, 2024, and accepted it on January 27, 2025. Wiley Periodicals LLC published it on behalf of the American Geophysical Union as an open-access article. The authors included Justin L. Wang, Jeremy J. Rosenbaum, Ajay N. Prasad, and Robert R. Raad from USC’s Keck School of Medicine; Esther J. Putman from Colorado’s Department of Aerospace Engineering; Andrea D. Harrington from NASA Johnson Space Center; Haig Aintablian from UCLA Space Medicine; and Brian M. Hynek from Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and Department of Geological Sciences.
