Researchers developing a lunar ‘dustbuster’

Researchers are studying a new way to clean up lunar dust from surfaces. In a recent article published in the journal Acta Astronautica , a team led by the University of Colorado Boulder explored a new solution to clean up dust from the moon.

“Astronauts walking or driving over the lunar surface kick up huge quantities of this fine material, also called regolith,” according to an official release.

"It's really annoying," said Xu Wang, a research associate in the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at CU Boulder. "Lunar dust sticks to all kinds of surfaces -- spacesuits, solar panels, helmets -- and it can damage equipment."

Unlike the dust found on Earth, moon dust is “constantly bathed” in radiation from the sun. This makes it stickier and more difficult to clean up from surfaces.

"Lunar dust is very jagged and abrasive, like broken shards of glass," Wang said.

The solution being developed by the team uses an electron beam that “shoots out a concentrated (and safe) stream of negatively-charged, low-energy particles.”

The team filled a vacuum chamber with materials resembling moon dust with the help of a NASA-manufactured "lunar simulant.”

The dust “literally jumped off” when an electron beam was aimed at the particles, said lead author Benjamin Farr. The solution also worked on other surfaces, including spacesuit fabric and glass.

The researchers still have a long way to go before the device can be used by real-life astronauts. The team's early findings suggest that electron-beam dustbusters could be a fixture of moon bases in the not-too-distant future, Farr said.

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