High-Fidelity Lunar Dust Simulant, Phase I

The severity of the lunar dust problems encountered during the Apollo missions were consistently underestimated by ground tests, illustrating the need to develop significantly better lunar dust simulants and simulation facilities. ORBITEC proposes to develop a family of High-Fidelity Lunar Dust Simulants that will better match the unique properties of lunar dust than existing simulants (such as JSC-1AF). Current lunar dust simulants do not have enough of the very fine particles, and they lack the agglutinitic glass and complex surface textures that dominate lunar dust. The proposed family of High-Fidelity Lunar Dust Simulants will approximate the size, morphology, composition, and other important properties of lunar dust. High-Fidelity Lunar Dust Simulants are required to physically evaluate the effects of lunar dust on the operation of all Exploration Surface Systems and to verify the effectiveness of dust mitigation strategies and technologies. The proposed Phase 1 effort will define requirements, develop, characterize, and deliver a sample of a prototype lunar dust simulant to NASA (TRL 4). The Phase 2 effort will refine the production process to create a large quantity of lunar dust simulant that will be characterized and delivered to NASA (TRL 6).

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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.