Current Lunar dust mitigation techniques and future directions

Lunar dust has the potential to impede any planned operation on the Lunar surface, especially that of a permanent Moon settlement. First identified during the Apollo missions, Lunar dust causes overheating, abrasion, and clogging of Lunar surface equipment and causes health problems for astronauts. Since the 1960s, several different concepts and technologies have been proposed to remove or prevent the build-up of Lunar dust on important surfaces and instrumentation, however, few methods have been trialed in-situ. This review covers the current active, passive and surface coating technologies in the literature. Of the evaluated technologies, it was found that many of the current solutions fail to address the ultra-fine portion of Lunar dust. There is also a lack of focus on passive mitigation solutions and little emphasis given to technology durability. In this study, the current active solutions were assigned a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) rating to gain an overview of current dust mitigation capabilities. Furthermore, each reviewed technology was put into a 5-tier mitigation category to generate an overview of mitigation techniques and their best-use application. In total, thirty-one methods were identified, with only four having a TRL of 7 and above. The most promising of these technologies is the electrodynamic dust shield, with a lack of focus on infrastructure and neutralisation-based technologies and techniques.