I'm getting the feeling, Jacob, that some people need a dust bogeyman. It gives them comfort somehow that there's this kind of 'magic' danger on the Moon that will completely frustrate attempts to set up shop there and thus make other destinations more inviting.

When I think of dust, I think of winds blowing it around and carrying it into corners and untended places. When I think of dust, I think of Earth (and my apartment), or I think of Mars and its global dust storms, or perhaps even comets. I can picture a hyper-tenuous cloud of microfine charged particles following the day/night terminator on our Moon, but I also remember that particles on the Moon follow ballistic trajectories (presumably when uncharged and not in an induced magnetic field). I also think of the constant Solar wind, and the Moon's passage through the magneto-tail each month.

I think of humanity's seemingly infinite capacity for invention, and I have little doubt that mitigation strategies will be developed to deal with the issue, from lids to deflection berms to microwave glassifying of landing fields. Electromagnetic bearings that repel dust, disposable hemp overalls to wear over spacesuits, electrostatic locks into the base, horsehair brushes, directed electrical fields, milled ultra-strong machine parts that pulverize the 'gritty' nature of the regolith, hepa filters, and probably a gazillion other things that I can't even imagine.

One of the benefits I see in Lunar development is the storm of engineering creativity that will be unleashed by the challenges posed in the Lunar environment, an entirely new playground for us to learn in. We're going to be given a chance to develop an entirely new skillset that will be fundamental in unlocking the rest of the Solar system for our benefit.

Of course, if we're scared of a little dust, then we might as well stay home...