Space News & Blog Articles

Exploration of the Moon or other dusty environments comes with challenges. The lunar surface is covered in material known as regolith and its a jaggy, glassy material. It can cause wear and tear on equipment and can pose a health risk to astronauts too. Astronauts travelling to Mars would experience dust saucing to everything, including solar panels leading to decrease in power. To combat the problems created by dust, NASA is working on an innovative electrodynamic dust shield to remove dust and protect surfaces from solar panels to space suits. 

Dust is common on Earth as much as it is on other worlds although of course the source can be very different. It plagues are homes and leads to the constant battle to remove it from our homes in the almost ritualistic activity of dusting. Even here there are a multitude of sprays, brushes and rags that claim to help. Some even employ the electrostatic force to help repel dust from surfaces. It is a mere annoyance to us, perhaps causing the odd electrical device to over heat but largely its a small part of our lives. On alien worlds, it can lead to serious equipment malfunction and serious health hazards. 

Researchers at NASAs Kennedy Space Centre in Florida are now turning to electrostatic forces for help to keep astronauts and equipment dust free. Technology is being developed that has been called the Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS) –  I rather wish they dropped the word dust from the title to make it sound a little more StarTrek! The shield uses transparent electrodes and electric fields to electrically remove dust from surfaces.The idea was inspired by the electric curtain concept that was developed by NASA in 1967 but this new EDS has been in development since 2004. 

Dust exposure is a real concern for Commercial Lunar Payload Services and Artemis missions as the material can get into gaskets and seals, hatches and even potentially lunar habitats compromising their integrity. Dr Charles Buhler, lead scientist said “For these CPLS and Artemis missions, dust exposure is a concern because the lunar surface is far different than what we’re used to here.”

It’s the nature of the stuff to, not just that it gets everywhere like sand after a day at the beach. It is really abrasive like tiny pieces of glass because, unlike Earth where weathering tends to dull sharp edges, no such process occurs on the Moon. Even brushing the stuff off surfaces can lead to problems. 

The Martian moons Phobos and Deimos are oddballs. While other Solar System moons are round, Mars’ moons are misshapen and lumpy like potatoes. They’re more like asteroids or other small bodies than moons.

Because of their odd shapes and unusual compositions, scientists are still puzzling over their origins.

Two main hypotheses attempt to explain Phobos and Deimos. One says they’re captured asteroids, and the other says they are debris from an ancient impactor that collided with Mars. Earth’s moon was likely formed by an ancient collision when a planetesimal slammed into Earth, so there’s precedent for the impact hypothesis. There’s also precedent for the captured object scenario because scientists think some other Solar System moons, like Neptune’s moon Triton, are captured objects.

Phobos and Deimos have lots in common with carbonaceous C-type asteroids. They’re the most plentiful type of asteroid in the Solar System, making up about 75% of the asteroid population. The moons’ compositions and albedos support the captured asteroid theory. But their orbits are circular and close to Mars’ equator. Captured objects should have much more eccentric orbits.

The moons are less dense than silicate, the most abundant material in Mars’ crust. That fact works against the impact theory. A powerful impact would’ve blasted material from Mars into space, forming a disk of material rotating around the planet. Phobos and Deimos would’ve formed from that material. If they result from an ancient planetesimal impact, they should contain more Martian silica.

Everyone knows that solar energy is free and almost limitless here on Earth. The same is true for spacecraft operating in the inner Solar System. But in space, the Sun can do more than provide electrical energy; it also emits an unending stream of solar wind.

Solar sails can harness that wind and provide propulsion for spacecraft. NASA is about to test a new solar sail design that can make solar sails even more effective.

Solar pressure pervades the entire Solar System. It weakens with distance, but it’s present. It affects all spacecraft, including satellites. It affects longer-duration spaceflights dramatically. A spacecraft on a mission to Mars can be forced off course by thousands of kilometres during its voyage by solar pressure. The pressure also affects a spacecraft’s orientation, and they’re designed to deal with it.

Though it’s a hindrance, solar pressure can be used to our advantage.

A few solar sail spacecraft have been launched and tested, beginning with Japan’s Ikaros spacecraft in 2010. Ikaros proved that radiation pressure from the Sun in the form of photons can be used to control a spacecraft. The most recent solar sail spacecraft is the Planetary Society’s LightSail 2, launched in 2019. LightSail 2 was a successful mission that lasted over three years.