Danger Dust

Moon dust, or regolith, isn’t like the particles on Earth that collect on bookshelves or tabletops – it’s abrasive and it clings to everything. Throughout NASA’s Apollo missions to the Moon, regolith posed a challenge to astronauts and valuable space hardware.

During the Apollo 17 mission, astronaut Harrison Schmitt described his reaction to breathing in the dust as “lunar hay fever,” experiencing sneezing, watery eyes, and a sore throat. 

Rebranded as Canary-S (Solar), the sensor is now meeting a need for low-cost, wireless air-quality and meteorological monitoring on Earth. The self-contained unit, powered by solar energy and a battery, transmits data using cellular technology. It can measure a variety of pollutants, including particulate matter, carbon monoxide, methane, sulfur dioxide, and volatile organic compounds, among others.

The oil and gas industry uses the Canary-S sensors to provide continuous, real-time monitoring of fugitive gas emissions, and the U.S. Forest Service uses them to monitor forest-fire emissions.

Firefighters have been exhibiting symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning for decades. They thought it was just part of the job but the sensors revealed where and when carbon monoxide levels were sky high, making it possible to issue warnings for firefighters to take precautions.