SPARCLE: Space Plasma Alleviation of Regolith Concentrations in the Lunar Environment

Details SPARCLE: Space Plasma Alleviation of Regolith Concentrations in the Lunar Environment SPARCLE: Space Plasma Alleviation of Regolith Concentrations in the Lunar Environment

May 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agusm.p41a..01c&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2007, abstract #P41A-01

Mathematics

Logic

5421 Interactions With Particles And Fields, 5470 Surface Materials And Properties, 5494 Instruments And Techniques, 6015 Dust, 6250 Moon (1221)

Scientific paper

The return of robotic devices and humans to the Moon will occur in the near future. Based on our previous experience, surface dust is a major problem requiring a solution: During Apollo landings, extensive locally- induced stirring of the regolith caused dust to be suspended long enough to come into contact with conducting surfaces. Dust behaved like abrasive Velcro: it adhered to everything and attempts to remove it by simply brushing did not remove fines (<10) and resulted in severe abrasion. Lunar fines, because of their electrostatic charging, were relatively difficult to collect in sample bags along with other size range particles. Within hours, seals were broken, samples contaminated, and portions of the samples, especially fines, lost. Because of this difficulty, details on lunar dust are relatively sparse. Obviously, the strategies initially implemented to deal with lunar dust failed. A major technological challenge will be developing a dust mitigation strategy. A currently proposed strategy based increased magnetic susceptibility in lunar fines may not work uniformly well for fines of non-mare, or non-lunar, composition. Based on dust behavior already observed on previous missions, we believe the successful strategy will deal with dust dynamics resulting from interaction between mechanical and electrostatic forces. We are planning test and develop an electrostatically-based device to modulate the electrical potential of conducting surfaces, hence to self clean exposed surfaces while collecting dust samples. It would scan a surface constantly to control its potential, and a plate of the opposite potential. As a first step, an experimental low mass, power, and volume device with complimentary electron and ion guns with specially designed self-cleaning nozzles are being designed for to test our concept and develop a working charging and discharging strategy in the lunar environment. Meanwhile, a laboratory simulation will act as a feasibility study for a laboratory breadboard self-cleaning device based on the use of combined electron or ion beams. The compact device would act as plasma dust sweeper.

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