Project Details

The Challenge | Dust Yourself Off

The Apollo missions showed us that lunar dust not only clung to everything and was impossible to fully remove, but it was also dangerous to humans and damaging to spacecraft systems. Your challenge is to develop a way to detect, map, and mitigate lunar dust to reduce the effects on astronauts or spacecraft interior systems.

The SICC ( space inflatable cleaning chamber) is an easily instalable system of cleaning the astronaut suits. It uses inflatable structure technologies, a pressurised air system using a compact pump an electrostatic filter that collects the dust. The contraption is particularly compact and light and is installed in a housing around the frame of the airlock . The deployment phase starts with the platform at the bottom that also carries an airtight door, which in the retraction phase is attached to the hatch. The platform is extended carrying with it the inflatable structrure. At the top and the bottom part of the housing there is some extra space for the air flow tube to unfold. To initialise the air flow a second pump will be used to start pumping the air to the chamber from the air tanks. The platform will contain the micromesh electrostatic filter and will collect the greater part of the lunar dust. The astronaut , located outside, once the contraption is deployed will open the first door which will close airtightly behind him. Then, the downward air flow will initiate in a laminar form which will cause the dust to fall on the filter where it will be collected for further analysis. After the end of this process the astronaut will open the hatch of the lander and enter clean. Finally using an exhaust valve at the bottom part of the lander the air of the chamber with be let out for equallising the pressure. When the lander is preparing to leave the moon , the whole contraption can be retracted in a way that doesn't affect the lander's structure and aerodynamics.

Bibliography

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa....

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

https://history.nasa.gov/alsj/TM-2005-213610.pdf

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19920010136.pdf

https://www.lpi.usra.edu/decadal/leag/DavidJLoftus.pdf