Researchers from the US have created a brand new dust mitigation technology, or a ‘lunar dustbuster’, that is capable of cleaning moon dust from surfaces using a beam of electrons. Its development could be of humongous importance for astronauts as far as future moon exploration is concerned.

At present, moon dust remains a surprising yet major roadblock as well as one of the biggest technical challenges in lunar exploration. Several space pioneers have described it as stubborn grime which often resists attempts at cleaning even after vigorous brushing. Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, the astronaut who visited the moon as a member of Apollo 17 in 1972, had even developed an allergic reaction to the material, which he said smelled like “spent gunpowder.”

What makes this dust extra sticky is the fact that it is constantly bathed in radiation from the Sun, which gives it an electric charge.

Targeting this very charge, Wang and his colleagues have now developed a device that shoots out a concentrated and safe stream of negatively-charged, low-energy particles—an electron beam—to get rid of these persistent particles. The device aims to turn the electric charges on particles of dust into a weapon against them.

According to Wang, if you hit a layer of dust with a stream of electrons, the dusty surface will collect additional negative charges. Pack enough charges into the spaces in between the particles, and they may begin repelling each other—much like magnets push each other away when the wrong ends are forced together.

“The charges become so large that they repel each other, and then dust ejects off of the surface,” Wang said.

To put this idea to test, he and his colleagues loaded a vacuum chamber with various materials coated in NASA-manufactured “lunar simulant” designed to resemble moon dust. And sure enough, after aiming an electron beam at those particles, the dust poured off, usually in just a few minutes.

The beam also succeeded in cleaning a wide range of surfaces—from glass to spacesuit fabric—even reaching the finest dust particles that are difficult to remove using brushes. Overall this method was able to clean dusty surfaces by an average of about 75-85% in less than 100 seconds.

However, while effective, cheap, and easy to roll out, the device isn’t in its final form just yet, and researchers are currently experimenting with new ways to increase its cleaning power, while also experimenting with an alternative method using ultraviolet (UV) light. But once complete and applied, not only would it sweep off a serious obstacle in lunar exploration, but also take humanity a step closer to actualising its dream of colonising the moon.

The research was published recently in the journal Acta Astronautica and can be accessed here.

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