A flight test aboard a sub-rocket system that will simulate lunar gravity is the next step in understanding how dust reduction technologies can successfully address this challenge. During the Flight test with Blue OriginSeven technologies developed by NASA’s Game Changing Development Program within the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate will study regolith mechanics and lunar dust transport in a simulated lunar gravity environment.
With essentially no atmosphere, dust is swept up, or lifted from the surface, by spacecraft plumes as they land on the Moon’s surface. But it can also be raised by electrostatic charges. Lunar dust is electrostatic and ferromagnetic, meaning it sticks to anything that has a charge on it.
Kristen John, NASA’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative “Fine grains of dust are particles that are smaller than the human eye can see, which can make contaminated surfaces appear clear,” said the technical integration lead at Johnson Space Center.
Although moon dust may appear smooth with a powder-like finish, its particles actually have a speckled appearance. Moon dust can scratch everything from space suits to human lungs. Dust can also prevent hardware from surviving on a lunar night when it accumulates on solar panels, reducing available power. A layer of dust clogs thermal radiators, increasing the temperature of equipment. Moon dust can also collect on windows, camera lenses and visors, causing blurred vision.
Projects being tested on lunar gravity flights with Blue Origin include the Cloth Boat, Electrostatic Dust Lofting (EDL), and the Hermes Lunar-G.
The cloth boat
When future astronauts perform additional vehicle activities on the lunar surface, they may introduce dust into pressurized, habitable zones. The purpose of the ClothBot experiment is to simulate and measure the transport of lunar dust as it is released from a small patch of spacesuit fabric. When agitated by pre-programmed motions, the compact robot can simulate “doffing”, which occurs when a spacesuit is removed. A laser-illuminated imaging system will capture the dust flux in real time, while sensors record the size and number of particles traveling through space. This data will be used to understand dust generation rates from activities of additional vehicles within the lander or airlock and to improve models of lunar dust transport for future lunar and possible Mars missions.
Electrostatic Dust Lofting
The technology will examine the height of lunar dust when electrostatic charging occurs after exposure to ultraviolet light. The EDL’s camera with attached lights will record and illuminate the duration of the flight. During the lunar gravity phase of the flyby, a vacuum door containing the dust sample will emerge and an ultraviolet light source will illuminate the material, charging the grains until they electrostatically repel each other. But don’t pull back and get high. The elevated dust sheet will pass through the laser as it rises above the surface. When the lunar gravity phase ends, the ultraviolet light source is deactivated, and the camera will continue recording until the end of the flight. This data will inform dust mitigation modeling efforts for future lunar missions.
Hermes Lunar-G
NASA partnered with Texas A&M and Texas Space Technology Applications and Research (T STAR) to develop Hermes Lunar-G, a technology that uses flight-proven hardware to conduct experiments with regolith simulants. is Hermes was previously a facility on the International Space Station. Hermes Lunar-G repurposed Hermes hardware to study lunar regolith simulants. The Hermes Lunar-G technology uses four canisters to compress the simulant during flight, takeoff and landing. When the technology is in lunar gravity, it will decompress the contents of the canisters while high-speed imagery and sensors capture data. The results of this experiment will provide information about regolith mechanics that can be used in various computational models. Results from Hermes Lunar-G will be compared with microgravity data from the space station as well as data obtained from parabolic flights for lunar and microgravity flight profiles.
As a fundamental challenge of lunar exploration, dust mitigation influences many of NASA’s technology developments. Capabilities ranging from in-situ resource utilization to surface strength and mobility depend on some form of dust mitigation, making it a cross-cutting area.
Kristen John
NASA’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative Technical Integration Lead
Engineering teams perform a variety of tests to minimize dust, making sure it doesn’t damage the lunar hardware. Created by NASA’s Game Chaining Development Program. Reference Guide To help engineers build hardware for the lunar surface for lunar dust mitigation.
of NASA Flight Opportunities Program Funding was provided for the Blue Origin flight test as well as vehicle capability enhancements to enable simulation of lunar gravity during sub-rocket flight for the first time. The payloads are managed under NASA’s Game-Changing Development Program within the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.
To know more visit: https://www.nasa.gov/stmd-game-changing-development/