Speaker
Description
Lunar regolith poses one of the main risks and challenges to any lunar surface mission due to the abrasion nature of particles on the Moon, the extreme environment, and the uncertain particle properties. While efforts to gain a deeper understanding of the fundamental properties of regolith particles increased in the past, tests still focused mainly on low-fidelity tests. With the increased accessibility of high fidelity and mature lunar simulants, effects on materials, components, and their performance degradation can be accurately evaluated. In the scope of this work, the degradation of solar cells and MLIs will be evaluated during an entire lunar mission. These components have been identified due to their high exposure to the dust environment and their susceptibility. A lunar mission has two main phases of concern: the lunar descent, where lunar regolith particles are accelerated to high velocity and the operational phase. The lunar regolith and suitable mitigation strategies must also be well characterized for an improved degradation model. This pitch introduces how we aim to achieve extensive knowledge of the material and component performance with key tests of thermo-optical parameters of different lunar simulant and component configurations within a representative environment. With this knowledge, simulation models can be converted directly into performance parameters. Knowing the effects of lunar dust on these key components and materials helps define test parameters and design tests and procedures for future lunar missions, leading to less margin and mass and a cost and risk reduction.
