Useful Lunar Dust

As recently reported in this blog, NASA is grappling with ways to control dust around a future lunar base. The stuff tends to get in everything in the low lunar gravity-- including, for example, astronauts' lungs, which could pose a long-term health risk. It turns out, however, that the dust may also have its uses.

NASA Goddard is working on a way to use lunar dust as a major component in concrete manufactured on the Moon. Using lunar dust would mean that component of the mix wouldn't have to be brought from Earth. Such concrete could be used to build habitats, or possibly huge optical telescopes. Coating a concrete form in a parabolic shape with aluminum would create a highly reflective surface for a telescope not only several times larger than its Earthly counterparts, but one with a solid, stable base under constantly dark skies unbothered by atmospheric antics.

Such building projects wouldn't take up all the dust, of course, but it would turn a menace into a combination menace and resource.