TIL astronaut Jack Schmidt discovered he was allergic to moon dust, which is a thing millions of other people have probably gone their whole lives never knowing.
Imagine being one of only twelve guys ever to have the honour of walking on the moon and then when you get there you’re allergic to it.
NASA scientist: you’re back early
Jack Schmidt: moon’s an allergen
NASA scientist: …what?
Jack Schmidt, loading an epipen and climbing back into the shuttle: moon’s an allergen
if one in twelve humans who have been on the moon was allergic to moon dust, that’s either a one-in-a-million chance or a VERY common allergy
The fact that it’s such a statistically useless sample is DEFINITELY driving a handful of very specialized scientists absolutely crazy
oh this one i know! he’s not actually allergic and he’s not a statistical outlier. all twelve astronauts reported symptoms after stepping on the moon because lunar soil is fucking nasty to human (and presumably most complex life) biology. moon dust is like inhaling asbestos. it’s very fine, chemically reactive, and will hang around in your lungs for months, like a shitty inhaled cloud of glass. which, as it’s mostly silicon, it kind of is. glass powder that is ripping up your airways and possibly your dna. see again: like asbestos
One of my all time favorite stories is Emergency Skin by N.K. Jemisin. She nails this idea. And, because N.K. Jemisin is a fucking force, it won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette in 2020. It’s shockingly good, please go read it.
There’s an old school Ray Bradbury story where white people make all the blacks emigrate to Mars, and then a couple generations later, white folks come to Mars asking for help bc they fucked up Earth.
it’s called the martian chronicles!! it’s my favorite book ever, a really good read and has a lot of colonization and capitalism and racism commentary, all which still ring true even 60 years later. if you don’t want to read a whole book, it’s set up as little bits-sized vignettes that are all slightly connected but also fun on their own. also mars has wine rivers which is the single goofiest and awesomest sci fi worldbuilding ever
ifesbob 