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The dust was a serious problem in Apollo and they were landing in isolated areas. It obscures landing sites and approaches that just let dust billow disturb the

The dust was a serious problem in Apollo and they were landing in isolated areas. It obscures landing sites and approaches that just let dust billow disturb the local regolith, meaning you kick up more dust than you might otherwise have during your mission. Future missions are almost surely going to involve landing near to existing equipment that must work for longer than the 3 days and change of Apollo 17's surface excursion, making dust management that much more important. You could, theoretically, always make your landings happen away from equipment but at 1/6th gravity with no atmosphere those sites would need to be quite far away to avoid kicking the seriously, seriously sharp dust into your equipment. But if you take that you also have to solve a hard transportation issue.

SideburnsOfDoom 5y ago
> those sites would need to be quite far away to avoid kicking the seriously, seriously sharp dust into your equipment. The dust will trail off with distance, but on the moon, there is no 100% safe distance. Literally anywhere on the surface of the moon is within range to some extent. In orbit around the moon could also be in range. https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/17/18663203/apollo-11-anniversary-moon-dust-landing-high-speed https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/17/18663203/apollo-11-annive... https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lunardust2020/pdf/5040.pdf https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lunardust2020/pdf/5040.pdf