Houston - Reborn| Dust Yourself Off

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.

Dustny

​During a space expedition astronauts are likely to face major challenges, yet one of the biggest obstacles lies in the microscopic particles of lunar dust.This project proposes two complementary solutions to reduce problems caused by it.

  • Why is this a problem?

At first, it is common to underestimate the destructive potential of dust due to its small size. However, due to their microscopic size, it’s challenging to detect them completely, which causes a high invasive capacity. Because of that, they posess a great risk to the ship's operating systems as they can cross the structural joints and compromise its operation. It is noteworthy that due to their electrical properties, they easily adhere to surfaces such as the interior of the ship or the astronaut's own uniform. Thus, as reported by astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison “Jack” Schmit t (Apollo 17), crew members are constantly exposed to danger, as breathing these particles may develop fever, nausea and shortness of breath.

  • A 2 step solution

Given this, we propose two solutions that, in a complementary way, improve the protection of astronauts andequipment and the amount of star dust charged to space vehicles.

- Latex Coating

In short, the particles found in lunar soil have dimensions ranging from approximately 45 μm ~ 100 μm and, in some cases, it is even smaller than 1 μm , furthermore, some some of it are extremely sharp . Because these particles are very small, they pose a great risk to the astronaut's suit as they easily penetrate some layers of current space suits as well as deposit on their joints making it difficult to move around in space. In this bias, it is necessary to use a method that eliminates or minimizes the contact of these substances with the exploration suit.

The first solution consists of an extra latex-based coating to reduce the penetrating power of dust. In order to justify the use of this material, we had as reference the principle used in wearable contraceptives. The technology equipment utiliized to make this method has an efficiency of almost 98% in retention of sperm on the order of about 5 μm, thus could act as a barrier for most particles. With this in mind, the idea is that we use latex or some material with similar properties to not only prevent that the majority of particles enter the lunar suit, but also minimizes the adhesion of dust to it.

- Electrostatic Chamber

By opening a spacecraft's exit hatch, the internal environment is prone to the spread of lunar dust. Thus, it is possible that the devices have their circuits exposed, as well as the living environment of astronauts become a potential risk to their health. Based on this, a possible solution to the problem is the use of electric fields to capture these particles before they invade the living environment of the ship. As stated earlier, lunar dust particles have an electric charge. This happens due to direct exposure to the solar winds, as the dust particles are excited and directly polarized, so that the moon face exposed to sunlight becomes positively charged and in contrast the unoccupied face becomes negatively polarized. Due to this ability to become charged, it is common for clouds of dust to form. With this in mind, it becomes possible to use the physics concepts related to electric fields in order to capture these clouds.

The second solution proposed by the group consists in improving the airlock systems. For this purpose, motors with rotating brushes would be internally coupled to a side wall of the room. Due to the friction caused by the brushes, the outside of the wall will become electrically charged and attract floating particles. After this, the pressurization process will begin and the dust located near the walls will be pushed towards the ground where it will be decanted and collected in containers. Meanwhile, the astronaut will safely leave the room since most of the dust is no longer floating around the room, but in the collecting area. Finally, after the astronaut's access to the living environment, the room will be closed and the containers sealed under vacuum. The destination of the dust would be defined according to the interests of the mission.

  • Research Challenges and Future Directions

- Efficient Ways to Coat the Astronaut

The biggest challenge when talking about latex coating is defining the best approach to apply it. Some ideas consist of (but not restricted to):

      • Use as a temporary coating and can be applied via latex spray.
      • Incorporate the material into the composition - total or not - of the space suit.

- More assertive solutions for generating an electrostatic field.

The idea of using rotating brushes to generate the electric field may be a viable strategy to solve the problem, but it is interesting to perform more detailed analyzes to ensure the solution's effectiveness, as well as to investigate the possibility of other approaches that may be simpler and more efficient. in generating the field described in the solution.

  • About our team

Our team is made up of university students from the fields of engineering and information technology.

    • Ari Secundino Gomes Junior – Computer Engineer
    • João Victor – Control and Automation Engineer
    • Pietro Urias – Computer Engineer
    • Gabriel Otsuka – Computer Science
    • Pedro Diogo – Computer Science