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Originally Posted by showboat
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There could be, but not as severe due to the atmosphere. Even on the moon, though, we know how to handle static buildup, it's just a matter of knowing we'll need to. It's a problem here on Earth...personal electronics must be protected against it, and you can be hit with quite a discharge if you touch something hanging from a helicopter that hasn't been discharged to the ground...they build up an electrostatic charge while in flight.
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Originally Posted by showboat
Why couldn't there be electrostatic lifeforms based on dust?
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Lack of diversity in the interactions between charged particles (no quantum effects to form discrete orbitals and make interesting chemistry). Not saying it's impossible for complexity to emerge from other effects in combination with electrostatic forces...but it does not seem like a promising medium.
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Originally Posted by showboat
But most people like to think of practical ways of a human [presence in outerspace] but it seems to me a very hostile place.
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Very hostile in some ways, in others, one of the most benign and predictable environments you can find. There are satellites still in operation that were launched over 40 years ago. No weather, no atmospheric corrosion, temperatures that remain constant or change in extremely predictable ways...
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Originally Posted by showboat
But lets say one was on the moon and a electrostatic charge was the normal at every full moon, the situation should be able to be used a power source for power storage rather than as a problem.
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What you suggest is similar to suggesting that we harness the static built up on people walking across carpet. High voltages build up because there's no path for them to discharge through. Given such a path, even one that is so high resistance it appears non-conductive without instruments designed specifically to measure very high resistances, it won't build up. There's not enough power there to do anything with.