Electrostatic Dust Control for Planetary Rovers

Detailed study of the physical and chemical nature of the fine particulate portion of the regoliths of these bodies is a key to understanding micrometeorite bombardment and the nature of regolith formation. Thus, missions to sample the surfaces of atmosphereless bodies, including the Moon, asteroids, and Mercury, have been identified as crucial components of solar system exploration over the next decades. We have proposed autonomous reconfigurable robotic manual assistants and lander/rovers for such missions. On the other hand, dust poses problems for mechanisms and exposed surfaces on landers/rovers sent to such bodies. Compromise of seals and loss of sample material, as well as mechanical damage to systems and surfaces, occurred after hours of operation during the Apollo missions. Thus both dust mitigation and dust collection are issues which must be addressed for sampling missions. Dust activity on atmosphereless bodies is ubiquitous and induced by complex interactions of fine particulates, environmentally-dependent fields, and charged particles with vehicle surfaces and mechanisms. Dust particles are both abrasive and adhesive as a result of the melting and crushing from micrometeorite bombardment. Thus, dust dynamics result from the interplay between mechanical and electrostatic forces and are a critical environmental factor with which all rover technologies must deal. We have considered various strategies for dust mitigation. Passive ones include the use of conducting surfaces and O-ring sealing of all mechanisms. Several active mechanisms for not only removing but collecting dust are under consideration. Our inter-disciplinary team is investigating the feasibility of an electrostatically based concept for a dust control. Relatively little work has been done on empirically simulating what happens when another surface is introduced into a non-conducting, dusty regolith. We plan to test our concept by performing empirical simulations of the interaction between solar wind, energetic plasma, regolith particles, regolith surface, and introduced surface in a temperature-controlled vacuum chamber fitted with a UV source and electron/ion beams acting as solar wind and plasma. Our dust collection concept involves using a beam of particles to increase the charging of dust and then attracting particulates of the desired size range to the oppositely charged surface collector, similar to one used to control the potential of spacecraft in highly charged environments.