Abstract: Space weathering is an important process on airless bodies, and it must be considered when interpreting data from planetary missions. Previous work has shown that solar energetic particles may cause dielectric breakdown in regolith within permanently shadowed regions near the poles of the Moon. Here, we predict that dielectric breakdown weathering could have melted and/or vaporized 2 – 9% of gardened (i.e., thoroughly mixed) regolith at the equator and 5 – 11% near the poles. If so, then ~ 3 …