Thermo-Optical Properties of Lunar Dust Simulants

Lunar dust coverage can significantly impact the thermo-optical properties of external surfaces for spacecraft and systems operating in the Lunar orbit or on the Lunar surface. This impacts the thermal control of these vehicles. Testing must be done to determine how much surface optics are affected by varying levels of lunar dust coverage. Optics and Particle Size Distributions (PSDs) of the dust simulant used in these tests are critical to the results. Many lunar dust simulants are available for testing, but their thermooptical properties are not well characterized. To resolve this unknown, 13 different lunar dust simulants’ IR emissivity and solar absorptivity were measured and are presented with their PSDs here.