New shielding technology from NASA that protects against damaging lunar dust just passed a trial run on the moon’s surface, marking an important milestone in the agency’s lunar aspirations.
The Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS) flew aboard Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost the moon
After Blue Ghost’s historic landing on March 2
NASA has big plans for the moon via its Artemis program
Related: Here’s what NASA sent to the moon on Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander
“This milestone marks a significant step toward sustaining long-term lunar and interplanetary operations by reducing dust-related hazards to a variety of surfaces for space applications ranging from thermal radiators, solar panels and camera lenses to spacesuits, boots and helmet visors,” NASA wrote in a statement
The EDS was originally derived from the Electrostatic Curtain concept
The EDS uses electrodes and electric fields to remove dust from the surface of objects. It was developed Game Changing Development Program
The shielding technology was tested in vacuum chambers, where it was used to remove lunar dust samples brought home by NASA’s Apollo International Space Station (MISSE)-11 mission
“The EDS technology is paving the way for future dust mitigation solutions, supporting NASA’s Artemis campaign and beyond,” NASA officials said in the release.
