During my whole career here at NASA, I've been very excited for
an opportunity like this to demonstrate the EDS technology
in the lunar environment.
Dust is one of the greatest challenges that was faced in the
previous era, and by incorporating this technology
into future missions, we're hoping that we're able to help
solve that great challenge.
The Electrodynamic Dust Shield, or what we call the EDS, is a
technology that we incorporate into different materials in
order to actively remove dust from surfaces.
It works by applying an electric field across the technology and
then it repels dust from the surfaces.
The purpose of sending the EDS payload to the Moon is to
demonstrate that this technology is capable of removing dust in
the lunar environment.
There are a lot of challenges that we have to overcome in
order to prove that.
So this will be a great opportunity for us to prove that
this technology is capable of being integrated into future
missions.
Those challenges include solar radiation, the complications of
lunar dust, and temperature extremes.
When we land on the lunar surface, we hope that we get
dust on our EDS's so that way we can demonstrate that they're
able to clear the dust off.
However, there is a chance that we do not get dust on those
EDS's, so we have incorporated what we call a re-duster.
It works by basically the same principles as the EDS.
We activate it and it pushes dust onto the EDS's that we're
looking at, and then we turn on those EDS's to clear them off to
show that the technology works.
In the Apollo days, lunar dust was one of the greatest
challenges that astronauts faced.
The lunar dust would stick onto astronaut suits.
They would carry it into the capsule and end up breathing in
that dust, causing all kinds of health issues.
Lunar dust would get into instruments and cause delays to
scientific results and also shorten EVA's.
By integrating this technology and other technologies like it
onto future Artemis missions, we're hoping to mitigate all the
different issues that dust posed during the Apollo era.
This dust can pose a great challenge to a lot of our
different missions to the Moon and other bodies such as Mars.
By using the EDS on lots of different missions, we hope to
actually improve the success of these missions by removing dust
from systems such as solar panels, thermal radiators,
cameras and windows.
So when we see the EDS technology work for the first
time on the moon, we're definitely going to be doing
lots of cheering and yelling and probably upset a lot of the
other operators in the rooms around us.
It's going to it's going to be an experience like nothing else
and I can't wait to be there.