Surface engineering and selection of materials for lunar regolith adherence characterization

Abstract

As the quest for long-term lunar exploration and habitation comes closer to reality, widespread efforts are ongoing to effectively mitigate lunar dust surface contamination and infiltration. This dust is hazardous to humans and tends to adhere tenaciously to all exposed surfaces, causing performance issues and ultimately failure. While several active and passive technologies have been developed to address this challenge, assessing the performance of these technologies in the lunar environment is required. The Regolith Adherence Characterization experiment payload scheduled to be flown to the lunar surface in 2024 provides an important opportunity for this evaluation. A limited number of material testing slots were available to the NASA Langley Research Center for this mission, so it was critical to make an informed selection. Two polymers, Kapton® HN and Teflon™ FEP, a carbon fiber reinforced bismaleimide composite, and a titanium alloy, Ti–6Al–4V, were chosen to be a diverse selection of structural materials from the NASA Langley Research Center. Each material was topographically modified using laser ablation patterning. This article describes the selection, surface modification, terrestrial characterization, and performance evaluation for these passive dust mitigating materials.