NASA's Perseverance rover measures ultrafine Martian dust to help protect future crews

26 October 2026

NASA has reported that its Perseverance rover measured Martian dust at a finer scale than any earlier mission. The rover's PIXL instrument detected fine particles smaller than 2.5 micrometres and ultrafine particles of about 100 nanometres, where earlier Mars measurements resolved particles only to about 3 micrometres. Swatches of spacesuit material carried on the calibration target of the SHERLOC instrument showed that static electricity decides which particle sizes stick to which materials, with Teflon collecting dust readily. The dust is rich in sulfur, chlorine and iron and is less abrasive than lunar dust, but the finest grains can reach deep into the lungs. The results are to appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, with Scott VanBommel of Washington University in St. Louis as lead author. Perseverance is operated for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed by Caltech.