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Completed TRL 5 (started at 3, targeting 5)
As identified in the Artemis Plan, “Dust mitigation technologies that diminish dust hazards on lunar surface systems such as cameras, solar panels, spacesuits, and instrumentation" has been identified as a priority. This project seeks to develop advanced space mechanism bearing technologies for long-term sustained operation in lunar dust environments. The project will investigate and quantify the degree of dust infiltration in (grease-packed) space mechanism bearings using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) and best practice sealing technologies, and it will identify and performance test advanced technologies/strategies to reduce dust infiltration and/or increase life expectancy of space mechanism bearings in the presence of lunar dust.
For long-life rotating mechanisms exposed to lunar regolith environments, bearings must provide sufficient resistance to particle infiltration, sufficiently high wear resistance, or both to meet mission requirements. The dust mitigation technologies' performance will be measured by the degree of dust infiltration and the degree of wear damage. Dust infiltration will be evaluated by measuring bearing torque, which can be shown to correspond well to intrusion of dust particles into bearings. Debris dent damage is characterized by permanent dents in the ball and/or the race of the bearing due to particulate in the lubricant. The debris dent damage will be measured with an optical microscope and quantified using image processing software to identify the maximum dent depth.
This project will develop novel testing equipment to evaluate space mechanism bearings in a lunar dust environment under ambient air conditions. Testing under lunar temperature and vacuum conditions will be an important next step after the conclusion of this project to assess the test data from a relevant environment.
Sustained presence on the Moon will required increased lifetimes of sensitive mechanical joints and bearings for surface equipment such as EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity) suits, pumps, motors, gearboxes, mobility systems, robots, vehicles, and prospecting/ extracting equipment for ISRU (In-Situ Resource Utilization). Dust impact affects all missions to the lunar surface. It is critical for NASA to better understand how great a threat the dust will play on the lifetime of all these critical assets. This project touches almost all systems for lunar surface exploration/infrastructure, so as such, there are many stakeholders that can benefit from the understanding and advancement of this technology. Successful completion of this project will identify mitigation strategies with potential to improve bearing life in the dirty lunar environment by reducing torque and/or dent depth in contaminated bearings by 15% or more. This project also advances testing techniques and provides performance data for existing bearing seal technologies that is virtually nonexistence from any other source.
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