Integrity Testing Laboratory Inc.

Published purpose

During the Apollo program, lunar surface operations were hampered by the effects of fine, pervasive, highly adhesive lunar dust. The missions have shown challenges like obscuration of vision, clogging of equipment, dust covering/abrasion of many sensitive external surfaces, degradation of seal and thermal performance. It became clear that before extensive lunar exploration efforts can continue, strategies must be developed to mitigate the effects of lunar dust. The project aims at providing a solution to this challenge by advancing the development and enhancement of Integrity Testing Laboratory's (ITL) unique cornerstone lunar Dust Mitigation Technology for sensitive materials of external space structures that will be used in robotic and manned missions for Moon exploration. One of the major tasks in this project will include participating in a coming Lunar mission that will allow testing ITL samples and prototype spectrometers in real Lunar environment conditions. The data from this Lunar dust exposure experiment will be evaluated and compared to data from ground-based exposures of similar samples in ITL's upgraded lunar environment simulator. Another major task in the project will see building two prototypes of portable spectrometers for evaluation of major thermal optical properties for use in planetary space environments. The results from this project will serve as a foundation for creating greater capacity to simulate the Moon's dusty environment for further testing and validation on Earth of Integrity Testing Laboratory's technologies.