Designing Passive Doped-YSZ Ceramic Coatings For Impact and Wear Resistance Against Lunar Dust

As the mission to land on the moon creeps close, there are a plethora of factors to consider that could affect aerospace structures. Composed of small rock fragments, glass beads, and minerals, lunar dust, or lunar regolith, is created by years of meteorite impacts. Lunar dust is quite corrosive, abrasive, reactive and adhesive, constituting the necessity for mitigation. This study shall explore the resilience properties of Yttria-Stabilized-Zirconia (YSZ) ceramic doped with silicon carbide particles, investigating its wear and impact resistance for lunar applications. The development of a resilient coating assists in maximizing the time available for planned activities during missions. Nevertheless, the integration of protective coatings on exploration equipment promotes long duration missions without the need for intervention. This research goes not only towards the Artemis mission, but will help lay a foundation for interplanetary exploration, such as Mars. This experimentation will utilize harsh impact and wear characterization techniques with lunar regolith simulant. The analysis will be focused on phase changes upon mechanical impact, wear, the changes in surface roughness, and mass loss of the samples. Raman spectroscopy will be implemented and is especially useful for the detection of phase changes and damage non-invasively. Through microscopy, we will take a closer look at the integrity of the coating, the adhesion of the simulant and nature of any fracture modes. The research outcomes will pave the way for the development of resilient coatings which protect explorations and support future planned missions to the moon and beyond.

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