Award

Lunar dust contamination poses one of the most difficult challenges to long-term lunar colonization. The dust is highly charged and highly insulating in a low gravity, vacuum environment that makes terrestrial dust mitigation methods inoperable. Passive coatings that can mitigate lunar dust have been based on friction reduction and do not address the electrostatic charges associated with the lunar environment. To remove static charge from the dust particles, the Alpha Particle Emitter Coating System proposes to apply a thin coating of Americium-241 to the surfaces of interested. Am-241 is a long-lived alpha emitter (432-year half-life) used for ionization in smoke detectors. This coating will supply positively charged alpha particles that can neutralize negative charges on the surfaces of the dust particles that attach to the surface. Furthermore, the coating would provide ionization to air used to blow dust off of surfaces in the lunar environment. These coatings would provide the long-lasting protection from lunar dust accumulation needed for repeat landings and habitation.nbsp;