To begin with ... Who are we

We are a team from small city in Bulgaria. We are all last year students in high school and we are full of energy and creativ ideas about how to change the world. So we have decided to take part in this international event to prove that small countries like us have a lot to offer.

THE PROBLEM

We saw that NASA is going to the Moon in 2024 and we wanted to help. Lunar dust is really harmful to people because once it is inhealed it can not get out easily. It is also radioactive and only with one touch it can change the DNA of the cells. What is more, it gets easily stuck to the space suits making it a significant issue that needs to be dealt with.

The Solution

We believe that a special room in the space station could be made where under the influence of UV light, electromagnets and an electric field the lunar dust should get separated from the space suit and then be pulled out of the station.

How it works

The capsule we are talking about is equipped with UV lights with 360 degrees range, electromagnets, a shaft with electric field generator and an air vent. When the astronaut enters the facility the UV lights are switched on. The atmosphere on the Moon makes it possible for lunar dust particles to levitate up to 10 centimeters from the spacesuit under UV light exposure.After that the electromagnets and the electric field generator are turned on, which should force the particles to go towards them, making sure there is as little lunar dust as possible over the space suit of the astronaut. When this process is complete the astronaut leaves the capsule and then the UV lights, the electric field generator and the electromagnets are turned off. This is when we open the air vent and the capsule vacuums itself. Here the air vent plays its role and increases the atmospheric pressure in the facility. The Moon's atmosphere is very close to zero so when we switch off all the magnetic and electric fields, the lunar dust particles are left with no charge and they start falling slowly. Then we open the shaft on the floor and the atmospheric pressure in the capsule must equal itself with the one outside which means that all of the dust will be thrown outside with the air in the capsule.

A look into the Future

We believe that this method is the small step towards the giant leap for humanity because it provides a solution to one of the biggest(if not the biggest) issues concerning Moon expeditions. It not only helps with preventing the equipment from being damaged by the particles but it also ensures astronauts are exposed to as few hazards as possible. This should make Moon expeditions a lot more easier, less costly and more frequent. Who knows, maybe soon we will be able to explore a whole new world.

Sources:

(Information)

https://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/l...

https://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/books/lunar_...

https://www.sciencealert.com/nasa-just-explained-w...

https://www.space.com/35240-moon-dust-levitates-na...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_soil

(Assets)

https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/models

(Tools used for the simulation)

Autedesk

Krita

Unity

(Simulation source code)

https://github.com/plamensberberov/Dust-Off-er

(Presentation)

https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=CEFC1A45CFEC7D39!130492&ithint=file%2cpptx&authkey=!AFr339KNUDcbRGI