Refined Method for Determining Adhesive Forces of Dust on Aerospace Materials

In this study, we expand upon a method of quantifying the force of adhesion of lunar simulant under simulated lunar surface conditions. This technique applies a monolayer of dust to a small sample coupon which is then rapidly rotated; from the size of the simulant grains that remain on the sample coupon, the force of adhesion of the simulant can be calculated. These tests, using lunar simulant JSC-1A across 16 different sample coupon materials, were performed under vacuum and exposure to ultraviolet light to simulate lunar conditions. This study demonstrates the ease and high-throughput with which adhesive forces can be experimentally determined under lunar conditions across a wide variety of materials. Improvements upon previous attempts at quantifying forces of adhesion are shown, including the addition of an applied acceleration force degree of freedom and the ability to test multiple different materials at the same time. Deliverables from this test include quantitative and experimentally determined adhesive forces for use in dust transport and analysis models as well as qualitative metrics to directly compare the susceptibility of materials to the adherence of lunar dust. Included forward work outlines hardware upgrades to improve homogeneity of simulant application and in-situ simulant particle size analysis.