Mitigation of lunar dust adhered to mechanical parts of equipment used for lunar exploration

A unique cleaning system has been developed utilizing electrostatic force to remove lunar dust adhered to the mechanical parts of equipment used for lunar exploration. A single-phase voltage is applied to parallel electrodes printed on a flexible substrate to remove the dust. More than 90% of adhered dust was repelled from the surface of the slightly inclined device in a vacuum, and the cleaning performance of the system would be further improved in the low-gravity environment of the Moon. This technology is expected to increase the reliability of equipment used in long-term manned and unmanned activities on the lunar surface.     

Particle removal by electrostatic and dielectrophoretic forces for dust control during lunar exploration missions

Particle removal during lunar exploration activities is of prime importance for the success of robotic and human exploration of the moon. We report on our efforts to use electrostatic and dielectrophoretic forces to develop a dust removal technology that prevents the accumulation of dust on solar panels and removes dust adhering to those surfaces. Testing of several prototypes showed solar shield output above 90% of the initial potentials after dust clearing.     

月表尘埃颗粒带电的机理及应用研究

研究月尘颗粒在电子束环境下以及紫外源辐照下的带电机理,利用数值方法模拟月尘颗粒在不同背景环境下的充电过程,以探索月表尘埃颗粒的带电机理,进而便于地面月尘环境模拟装置选择合适的月尘带电方式进行空间模拟实验.给出了尘埃在电子束环境下的充电方程,并将紫外辐射带电与具体应用相结合.通过模拟结果可知,在电子束环境下,月尘表面的电荷数随粒径尺寸增大,随电子枪辐照束斑半径减少,随电子枪流强的增加而增多;在紫外源的辐照下,月尘表面电荷数随颗粒尺寸的增大以及紫外线辐照度的增加而增多.由月尘颗粒受太阳紫外辐照带电的数值模拟结果可知,月尘需要在太阳长时间的辐照下才可以带上可观的电荷数,地面模拟该过程需增加辐照源来加速实验.通过模拟结果的分析比较并结合"空间环境模拟装置"中对月尘舱的设计要求,最终优选紫外源辐照带电方式作为月尘颗粒的带电方案.     

月尘被动防护技术的最新研究进展

月球的特殊环境使月尘具有导电等特殊的性质,极易黏附在探测仪器上造成设备的失效,给探月工程带来极大的危害,因此国内外众多研究组针对月尘危害展开深入研究.本文从黏附机理、防护方法和实验测试几方面对月尘的被动防护技术进行综述和展望.首先,阐述了月尘对探测设备造成的不利影响及影响因素,进而具体论述月尘黏附的机理,详细介绍造成黏附的两种主要作用力的理论基础.然后,针对不同作用机理系统阐述了降低月尘颗粒黏附力的主要方法,对月尘被动防护技术的最新进展进行了总结.最后,结合防护方式的不同,总结了测试月尘黏附力的方法,从而为有效实现探测设备表面月尘防护奠定基础.     

Manipulation of single particles by utilizing electrostatic force

Because manipulation of single particles is of great importance in the fields of electronics and biology, the author has been investigating an electrostatic manipulation system. The manipulation probe consisted of dipole pin electrodes. When voltage was applied between the electrodes, the dielectrophoresis and coulombic force generated in the non-uniform electrostatic field was applied to the particle near the tip of the electrode. The particle was captured by the application of voltage and then it is released from the probe by turning off the voltage application. It was possible to manipulate not only insulative but also conductive particles. However, if a particle was charged, the Coulomb adhesion force prevented the release of the particle even when the voltage application was turned off. This condition was generally observed for small particles. Asymmetric and coaxial electrode systems were developed so that the release of the attached particle was independent of the position of the probe. Instead of turning off the voltage application, high voltage was applied to the electrodes to blow off the particle by the ionic wind generated in a corona discharge field, and the applicability of this system was demonstrated. Further, a vibration separator was developed. A three-dimensional field calculation was conducted to calculate the dielectrophoretic force by using the finite difference method and the calculated force was compared to the measured force. It was deduced that the predominant force for the particle adhesion was not dielectrophoresis but Coulomb force generated due to triboelectrification.     

Particle-size sorting system of lunar regolith using electrostatic traveling wave

A particle-size sorting system of lunar regolith using an electrostatic traveling wave is developed for In-Situ Resource Utilization on the Moon to extract indispensable resources from the regolith and realize long-term exploration. The regolith is sorted by utilizing a balance between the electrostatic and gravitational forces, which are determined depending on particle size, in vacuum conditions where the particles are not subjected to air drag. In this study, the effect of particle charge on the particle motion is confirmed by conducting model experiments and numerical calculations based on the distinct element method. In addition, it was experimentally demonstrated that particles less than approximately 20 μm in diameter were efficiently separated from the bulk of a lunar regolith simulant FJS-1 in a vacuum condition (∼1.5 × 10⁻² Pa), and the performance of the size sorting system on the Moon was predicted by the numerical calculations. The system utilizes only the electrostatic force, and it does not require any gas, liquid, or mechanical moving parts.     

Frequency converters based on FWM in traveling-wave optical amplifiers: Theoretical aspects

We summarize the results of a theoretical model, developed to investigate the performance of a frequency converter based on four-wave mixing in a bulk traveling wave amplifier. The theory predicts very high values of conversion efficiency and signal-to-background ratio in the bandwidth of the converted signal. These results, whose experimental confirmation is reported elsewhere, increase the potential of using four-wave mixing in semiconductor amplifiers in actual optical systems.     

Modification of the lunar surface by solar wind ion bombardment

Trivalent osmium ions are substitutionally incorporated into aqueous precipitates and melt-grown single crystals of AgBr and AgC1. The ions are distributed between three structurally inequivalent lattice sites in both salts. From epr studies, we have inferred that these sites are distinguished by the arrangement of charge-compensating silver ion vacancies in the two closest cation subshells. The most reasonable dopant-vacancy configurations have been deduced from the epr data. These configurations persist up to at least 300 K, and are compared with those observed in other trivalent metal ion doped systems.     

An experimental study on the characterization of electric charge in electrostatic dust removal

Automatic dust removal using the electrostatic forces of electrodynamic screen (EDS) is an emerging method for mitigation of energy yield losses caused by dust accumulation on solar collectors. Both electric field distribution and dust particles' charge acquired during the removal process play pivotal roles in thorough evaluation of EDS performance. Previous studies have comprehensively analyzed the electric field distribution in EDS. In this paper we have conducted a number of experiments to examine how two EDS design parameters, electrode width and inter-electrode spacing, and two operational parameters, applied voltage and relative humidity, affect dust particles' charge. Sixteen EDS prototypes in two sets were developed and tested in a laboratory environment to study the acquired charge by dust particles via charge-to-mass ratio measurements. It has been shown that the charge-to-mass ratio is directly affected by the electric field intensity on an EDS surface. Furthermore, we have shown the detrimental impact of relative humidity on EDS performance. The results are advantageous in the evaluation of EDS design and its optimization to attain maximum dust removal efficiency.     

Photographic diagnosis of crystalline silicon solar cells utilizing electroluminescence

The photographic surveying of electroluminescence (EL) under forward bias was proved to be a powerful diagnostic tool for investigating not only the material properties but also process induced deficiencies visually in silicon (Si) solar cells. Under forward bias condition, solar cells emit infrared light (wavelength around 1000 to 1200 nm) whose intensity reflects the number of minority carriers in base layers. Thus, all the causes that affect the carrier density can be detected, i.e., the minority carrier diffusion length (or in other words, lifetime), recombination velocity at surfaces and interfaces, etc. (intrinsic material properties), and wafer breakage and electrode breakdown, etc. (extrinsic defects). The EL intensity distribution can be captured by Si CCD camera in less than 1 s, and the detection area simply depends upon the optical lens system suitable to the wide range of 1 cm–1.5 m. This fast and precise technique is superior to the conventional scanning method such as the laser beam induced current (LBIC) method. The EL images are displayed as grayscale, which leads to the difficulty of distinguishing the sorts of those deficient areas. Since the intrinsic deficiency is more sensitive to temperature than the extrinsic deficiency, the change in solar cell temperature can offer the difference in EL intensity contrasts. These effects upon the measurement temperature can be applied to categorize the types of deficiency in the crystalline Si solar cell.