Assessing Toxicity and Nuclear and Mitochondrial DNA Damage Caused by Exposure of Mammalian Cells to Lunar Regolith Simulants.

Previous missions to the lunar surface implicated potential dangers of lunar soil. In future explorations, astronauts may spend weeks or months on the Moon, increasing the risk of inhaling lunar dust. In an effort to understand the biological impact of lunar regolith, cell cultures derived from lung or neuronal cells were challenged with lunar soil simulants to assess cell survival and genotoxicity.