NASA Ames Invites Media to Meet Hawaiian Students Using NASA Lunar Dust Test Facilities

Reporters are invited to meet high school students as they test an electrodynamic dust shield in a simulated lunar soil test bed on Wednesday, April 1, at 3 p.m. PDT, at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.

The moon is covered in a fine electrostatic dust, which is very sharp and clings to surfaces, posing severe health and safety challenges. The dust jeopardizes the functionality of solar panels and other electronics required for longer-stay lunar missions. 

Moon Research Investigating Dust Expulsion Removal Systems (Moon RIDERS) is an educational project partnering Hawaii high school students with NASA, Google Lunar XPRIZE teams, and the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems, which is a project of the Japan-U.S. Science, Technology and Space Applications Program of the University of Hawaii at Hilo Department of Physics and Astronomy, to develop and implement real-life lunar surface experiments. The test is hosted by NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute, headquartered at Ames.

The students are testing a hardware system developed in conjunction with Kennedy Space Center in Florida to remove lunar dust. The system uses high voltage square waves to ripple dust away from the surface. The team completed two days of field testing on the slopes of Mauna Kea in Hawaii last week, and will use the Lunar Regolith Simulant Test bed at Ames for laboratory results. Media will have the opportunity to view the experiment test bed and interview students about the project.

Media interested in attending the event must contact sharon.k.lozano@nasa.gov by noon on April 1 to RSVP and receive additional information.

For more information about the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute, visit: http://www.sservi.nasa.gov/

For more information about Ames, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ames