Electrodynamic Dust Shield Testing on the Materials on International Space Station Experiment 11

Abstract

Dust is a major concern for lunar exploration. To combat the effects of dust, NASA, academia, and industry are developingsolutions to the dust problem. One potential technology solution for this problem is the Electrodynamic DustShield (EDS). Many years of research and development have gone into this technology. The Materials on InternationalSpace Station Experiment - 11 (MISSE-11) provides a long term space exposure platform for this technology to verifycompatibility of materials and manufacturing processes to the space environment. The MISSE-11 EDS experimentconsists of 12 EDS panels. These panels are made of glass, polyimide, or prototype spacesuit fabric. Some panels arecovered with a lotus leaf coating while others are covered with thermal paint. They are flown in the wake position ofthe ISS to simulate the lunar environment. Two panels are in an active configuration and are energized with a highvoltage power supply, which generates high-voltage pulses to activate the dust shields. Current and voltage data arerecovered from each of these trials to compare to baseline data. Also, each of the EDS panels are imaged on a monthlybasis to track any changes with time that may occur with the EDS variants. In this paper, we report preliminary dataand analysis from this spaceflight experiment.