Using Indium Tin Oxide To Mitigate Dust on Viewing Ports

NASA plans to use a number of onboard viewing ports to measure lunar regolith in situ and to monitor robotic and human activities on the lunar or Martian surface. Because of the size and abundance of dust particles on these bodies, the potential for dust to occlude viewing ports and windows is high enough to threaten system lifetime and reliability, especially when activities rely on relaying video to either a habitat module or controllers on Earth. This project uses a technology being developed by KSC's Electrostatics and Surface Physics Laboratory to remove dust from windowlike surfaces. The technology applies an alternating electric potential to interlaced electrodes. In this application, we use indium tin oxide (ITO) to create various electrode patterns in order to determine the most reliable pattern for dust removal. This technology has application to systems where optical clarity is important. Specifically, this project considers the in situ resource utilization (ISRU) application of a viewing port for Raman spectroscopy, where the electrode pattern on glass would be coated with a scratch-resistant sapphire film (Al2O3).