What they were actually reporting was the smell of the airlocks after they returned from their excursions. The moon has no atmosphere, so it has been accumulating dust from billions of years of asteroid impacts that have never come in contact with oxygen. Many of the chemicals in the dust are oxidative and so when it is exposed to air for the first time it rapidly oxidizes just like gunpowder!
And I think the outer space report was from space walks, and the explanation was that the first time the airlock itself was exposed to hard vacuum, the surfaces of the airlock would have a reaction that left a scent of ozone.
There has been some great research into laser or solar sintering of regolith, and one of my first questions was if the resulting material is safe for humans.
An interactive microscope of regolith.[2] Like tiny broken glass, hard as rock, and sticking to everything like static-charged packing peanuts.
An old tech memo and paper.[3][4]
[1] https://an.rsl.wustl.edu/apollo/data/A17/resources/a17-techd... page "27-28" 258, 50 in pdf. Lots of other mentions of dust. [2] interactive microscope of regolith https://virtualmicroscope.org/sites/default/files/html5Asset... [3] The Effects of Lunar Dust on EVA Systems During the Apollo Missions https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20050160460/downloads/20... [4] IMPACT OF DUST ON LUNAR EXPLORATION https://adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/2007ESASP.643..239S
It seems to be under-reported that the Earth is pretty nice.
[1] https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasas-dust-shield-success...
> Fine like powder, but sharp like glass
Sounds scary. But totally worth it!
It's by the cartoonist of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal and his wife (the one with an actual science PhD). https://www.smbc-comics.com/
I told my neighbor: we could send some humans to Mars, but not expect to get them back!
Even if Mars were pre-terraformed, even if Mars were a perfect idyllic copy of Earth and a Garden of Eden just inviting humans to go there and set up bases, we could not send crews to Mars.
The final nail in this coffin was, for me, when I heard an ISS Expedition astronaut explain what NASA prohibits when they return from a long stretch on the Space Station. The astronauts are not permitted to jog or lift weights. They can't drive a vehicle or fly aircraft(!) They mustn't jump or twist their head around too fast. They must re-learn how to brush their teeth and how to drink fluids. They may feel dizzy, nauseous, or have trouble with spatial judgement. They are, essentially, helpless toddlers confined to their quarters. I mean, it is quite obvious by the way that they must drag these national heroes onto a gurney from the capsule after splash-down that their physiques are no longer normal.
The astronauts experience a lot of muscle atrophy and unique procedures in microgravity. If an astronaut can't even jog, or pass a roadside sobriety test, or go to the bathroom for themselves after an ISS mission, how, after 6 months' travel in deep space, will they accomplish anything at a Mars base, even mere survival?
Surely we could send up all supplies with autonomous vessels. Pre-stock water tanks and oxygen and air and have robots build a basic Mars-base there, before any astronaut arrives. But if the actual journey is practically incapacitating our actual human beings, the whole deal is off.
So no, we'll never get to Mars in the way that Musk and NASA promise. We'll keep sending robots eager to find out more and explore the interesting parts. The robots can bring back all the samples they want. They'll send pictures and even audio and plenty of sensor data. But humans will be lucky if we get a stable colony on the Moon (I believe that Moon Bases have their own currently insurmountable obstacles.) I think that humankind should be really happy and satisfied that we've got orbital space stations with continuous habitation now.