Recent progress in lunar dust migration and biological toxicity research

Lunar dust is easy to transport both vertically and horizontally, which affects the lunar surface material distribution, and the dusty plasma environment near the lunar surface. The large-scale lunar dust activity observed in the previous lunar exploration missions remains a scientific puzzle. The study of lunar dust formation, emission and migration mechanisms are crucial to understand the dust related phenomena on other airless bodies like Mercury and asteroids. In terms of engineering, lunar dust is an important environmental problem that cannot be ignored in any lunar surface exploration activities. It is an important challenge to deal with dust related problems during manned lunar landings and the construction of lunar bases. Although some progresses have been made after decades of research, some key scientific problems still need further study. Recently, with the implementation of various lunar exploration missions such as the LADEE mission and the Chang'E lunar exploration project, as well as the ground experiments, the transport rules and biological toxicity of lunar dust have been studied and new progresses have been made. This article briefly reviews the important results obtained in recent lunar dust research.