The Moon has no atmosphere, hence, it offers a unique opportunity to place telescopes on its surface for astronomical observations. It is phase-locked with Earth, and its far side remains free from ground-based interference, enabling the optimal use of radio telescopes. However, the surface of the Moon, as any other airless planetary object in the solar system, is continually bombarded by interplanetary dust particles that cause impact damage and generate secondary ejecta particles that continually overturn the top layer of the lunar regolith. In addition, there is evidence, that small particles comprising the lunar regolith can be electrically charged, mobilized and transported, also representing a hazard for covering sensitive surfaces and interfering with exposed mechanical structures. In addition to the naturally occurring dust transport, rocket firings during landings and take-offs, pedestrian and motorized vehicle traffic will also liberate copious amounts of dust, representing a potential hazard for the safe and optimal use of optical platforms. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Astronomy from the Moon: the next decades (part 2)'. ✉ Corresponding author. 25 3 2024 382 2271 20230075 20230075 25 3 2024 © 2024 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. Abstract The Moon has no atmosphere, hence, it offers a unique opportunity to place telescopes on its surface for astronomical observations. It is phase-locked with Earth, and its far side remains free from ground-based interference, enabling the optimal use of radio telescopes. However, the surface of the Moon, as any other airless planetary object in the solar system, is continually bombarded by interplanetary dust particles that cause impact damage and generate secondary ejecta particles that continually overturn the top layer of the lunar regolith. In addition, there is evidence, that small particles comprising the lunar regolith can be electrically charged, mobilized and transported, also representing a hazard for covering sensitive surfaces and interfering with exposed mechanical structures. In addition to the naturally occurring dust transport, rocket firings during landings and take-offs, pedestrian and motorized vehicle traffic will also liberate copious amounts of dust, representing a potential hazard for the safe and optimal use of optical platforms. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Astronomy from the Moon: the next decades (part 2)’. Keywords: moon, dust hazard, near-surface dusty plasmas status released display-pdf yes is-olf no is-manuscript no is-preprint no is-journal-matter no is-scanned no is-retracted no Received 2023 Jun 30; Accepted 2023 Oct 3; Issue date 2024 May 9. 1. Dust poses risks to human presence or the long-term remote operation of astronomical telescopes on the lunar surface. Dust particles damage spacesuits [ 2 ], cover optical surfaces [ 3 – 5 ] and degrade the performances of thermal radiators and solar panels [ 2 ]. Lunar dust in human living quarters could lead to health risks when inhaled by astronauts [ 6 ]. ( a ) The flux of interplanetary meteoroids at 1 AU as a function of their size (mass), the labels indicate space missions, and β -meteoroids are IDPs on escaping orbits driven by radiation pressure [ 9 ]; ( b ) the modelled speed distribution, independent of the size of a meteoroid, scaled with the mass flux at the Moon (black solid line) and at Earth (blue solid line) [ 11 , 12 ]. (a) . Concern for lunar-based astronomy IDP impacts will The small optical dust detectors on Apollo 12, 14 and 15 [ 70 ], each placed 1 m above the surface, indicated a combined long-term dust accumulation rate of the order of 100 μ g cm − 2 y − 1 [ 71 ]. The Chang’E-3 lander’s Sticky Quartz Crystal Microbalance (SQCM), at a height of 1.9 m above the lunar surface, reported a dust accumulation rate of about 20 μ g cm − 2 y − 1 [ 72 ]. Without knowing the initial speed and velocity distribution of the dust grains launched from the surface, it remains an open question how the dust accumulation rate changes with height above the surface. It is perhaps still encouraging that the rough estimates based on the combined Apollo [ 71 ] and ChangE’3 [ 72 ] in situ measurements are of similar magnitude as the laboratory results [ 61 ]. These processes could represent a significantly large enough hazard to warrant a combination of in situ measurements. 5. Conclusion Dust on the lunar surface represents a variety of hazards and its safe and effective mitigation requires detailed, yet to-be-fully developed, engineering approaches. For example, the size and speed distributions of electrostatically levitated dust could be measured on the surface [ 73 , 74 ]. A complementary measurement of the dust coverage as a function of height could be measured by the optical transmission changes of a series of glass plates [ 75 ] or quartz crystal microbalance set-ups [ 72 ]. We focused on the naturally occurring dust hazards, but rocket firings during landings and take-offs, pedestrian and motorized vehicle traffic, for example, will liberate copious amounts of dust, representing a potential hazard for the safe and optimal use of optical platforms [ 76 ]. These, however, could be mitigated by careful mission design using distant landing/take-off sites, minimizing any traffic near installations and by including shutters and covers over sensitive surfaces that can be deployed during critical periods, as needed. Site selections for the various scientific installations, and their long-term optimal use, will require international agreements and cooperations [ 77 ]. Data accessibility This article has no additional data. Declaration of AI use We have not used AI-assisted technologies in creating this article.