Digital Sprocket

NASA and others have been doing a lot of research on dust mitigation techniques. This will be critical for astronauts living on the surface of the Moon or Mars for long duration expeditions. The ubiquitous dust poses health hazards to the astronauts and engineering hazards to equipment. What follows are a few of the techniques that you may employ to combat dust problem when you visit our lunar and Martian outposts.

You can design rear-entry space suits that dock with your landing vehicle. Since no one has to go through an airlock, you’ve pretty much eliminated health risks associated with bringing dust inside.

You can also wear jumpsuits over EVA suit. This is akin to the disposable suits worn by HAZMAT or nuclear workers. Again, the jumpsuits are removed before reentering your spacecraft. In addition to health risks, this will also reduce the damage done to bearings/joints on the EVA suits.

NASA is working on electrostatic tools for removing dust. These range from wands to airlock barriers. Since the dust is electrostatic, a magnetic field will attract dust. Think of it as a magnetic vacuum cleaner.

It appears that lunar dust is microwavable. If you popped a scoop of it in you microwave, you could melt it so that it reforms into a single glassy sheet. If you built a lawnmower shaped device with a microwave emitter on the bottom, you could push it around the Moon and turn dust into sidewalks.

My own suggestion has to do with scratched face shields and equipment lenses. NASCAR racecars start a race with several layers of clear mylar film covering the glass of their windshields. As the windshield gets dirty during the course of the race, they peel off one layer of mylar at a time. This would also work to protect optical equipment on the Moon from the abrasive nature of lunar dust. I don’t know how mylar would perform in the thermal and radiation environment of the Moon, but I’m certain a similar system would be trivial to develop.

I’m not as worried about protecting the rover, or other mechanical equipment from dust. While it could clog moving joints or axels, we have quite a bit of experience working in dusty environments on Earth. I suspect that a flexible sleeve will cover some joints, some will just need to be engineered for robustness, and some will simply require periodic maintenance and replacement. The combination of these three methods should help your lunar rover keep rove for many miles.