Charging mechanism and application of lunar dust grains

Abstract

Since the moon has an extremely rarefied atmosphere, the full spectrum of the electromagnetic radiation of the sun reaches the surface, charging the surface dust and affecting its current charge state. Lunar surface dust thus remains electrostatically charged at all times. Charged lunar dust will adversely affect the operations of most mechanical systems required by manned and unmanned exploration missions. Charged dust will also stubbornly adhere to solar panels and thermal radiators, thus reducing their efficiencies. Researches on the charged lunar dust can help to investigate lunar dusty environment as well as to solve those particle-induced problems by both simulation and experiment in laboratory. In this work, two different charging processes of charged lunar dust in the environment of electron beam and the radiation of ultraviolet source are considered. The computer numerical simulation method is used to analyze these two different charging processes of lunar dust, to explore the charging mechanisms of lunar dusts, and to choose an appropriate way of charging for the lunar environment simulation device in laboratory. On the basis of the classic dust charging equation, the charging equation of a dust in pure electron environment is given for the first time in this work. Meanwhile, the charging process under ultraviolet radiation is discussed and combined with the specific application of charging dusts. A solver of fourth-order Runge-Kutta algorithm is made to solve differential equations under two different irradiation sources. The main simulation results show that:1) in electron environment, the surface dust charge number increases as the particle size and the current intensity of electron guns increase, while the charge number increases as the beam spot radius of electron guns decreases; 2) under ultraviolet radiation, the dust charge number increases with the particle size and irradiance increasing, but charging efficiency is slow. A great dust charge number needs a long time radiation from sun (equivalent to 74 deuterium lamps), which means that more ultraviolet radiation sources are essential to speeding up the experiment in laboratory. Although the calculated efficiency of ultraviolet radiation is lower than electron irradiation, the secondary-electron emission, the scattering and the transmission process of electron irradiation are ignored, which can greatly reduce the efficiency of charging by energetic electron guns in the actual experiment. Therefore, comparing these two charging mechanisms and considering the actual design requirements for the space environment simulation device, charging by lots of ultraviolet radiation is an appropriate scheme for electrification of lunar dusts.