Investigating the Use of Electrodynamic Dust Shielding to Improve the Robustness of a Lunar Rover Drivetrain to Regolith

Purpose It is imperative for uncrewed and remotely operated lunar rovers to utilise active dust mitigation techniques, such as the electrodynamic dust shield (EDS), as it is not possible to manually clean such systems. The EDS may be used to reduce the volume of regolith incident on passive dust mitigation and dust tolerant designs for lunar rover drive systems, increasing rovers’ effectiveness and longevity that would otherwise be decreased by dust scattering and wear during operation. Originality Existing research into using an EDS for lunar regolith removal has primarily focused on flat topologies. This paper will outline how the EDS technology performs as a cylinder wrapped around a conductive vertical shaft, with three phases to control dust flow direction, thus extending the existing body of knowledge on this technology and investigating its use in this new and critical application. Methodology To allow comparison with existing research, an electrode pitch of 0.6 mm and a width of 0.3 mm was used in the EDS design. Testing was completed with LHS-1 simulant in both flat and vertical wrapped shaft configurations while powering the EDS electrodes at 1.3 kV and 10 Hz. Findings Testing found approximately 86.6% removal of simulant by mass (s.d. 9.5%) for flat panels and a 95.7% reduction in simulant passing through the seal interface for the vertical cylindrical configuration. Although this demonstrates promising simulant mitigation results that aligns with past literature, substantial future work is required to further improve the operational lifetime of the EDS and its viability in lunar mission environments.