Extreme Environment Wear Testbed for Materials Discovery for Lunar Dust Tolerant Applications

We propose an extreme environment wear testbed for materials discovery for lunar tolerant applications to address the lack of current test methods capable of evaluating particulate abrasion of materials in representative lunar and planetary environments by developing a novel testing platform to evaluate material wear by regolith in combination with environmental effects of vacuum, temperature and UV radiation. The advantage over current testing will push the boundaries of tribology to enable materials testing and discovery in more representative environments without dependence on time- and resource-intensive flight experiments or large-scale test campaigns. After completing this project, LaRC, as well as ESD, STMD and broader space materials community, will gain the ability to more efficiently evaluate and identify materials concepts and technologies that can persist in extreme environments leading to rapid technology maturation and incorporation into end applications. We anticipate that identifying an effective, repeatable way of introducing lunar simulant, which could also inadvertently damage our vacuum system, into the wear test could delay our project. We have identified existing standards and experts at LaRC, JPL and UND to help guide our effort, as well as filters and positioning techniques, to protect the vacuum system from particulates to deliver a novel extreme environment wear testbed in the proposed 12-month timeframe.

This effort will construct and validate a wear testbed that can subject material candidates to abrasion caused by lunar dust, as well as vacuum, thermal gradients and UV radiation representative of the Moon and other extreme space environments, such as Mars, Uranus and Enceladus. The proposed novel test capability will leverage an existing SAA with UND and connection with JPL materials researchers to validate and advance the testbed that will ultimately enable materials advancement for a number of existing activities within ESDMD, STMD and SMD in support of Artemis and planetary exploration. The unique testbed would also be relevant and of interest to academic, government and commercial partners to more effectively screen materials prior to incorporation into end-applications.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 4) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.