Dust buster
Out-of-this-world fashion with function: clothing or accessories for earth or space wear!
Every space traveler – even the robotic ones – should feel? their very best during the journey, infused with the very best data and technology available. Earthlings can follow suit. Design a space data-tech-fashion wearable in the form of clothing or accessories that will collect or distribute data and technology in the following categories:
Design for Interconnectivity (staying more connected to team, community, and tools)
- enhance the work/life experience of humans and/or capabilities of robots
Design for Health (biometrics, physical and emotional health, and/or environmental alerts)
- maintain or improve the health and well-being of the human
- provide early warning for unhealthy environmental factors (air quality, radiation, outgassing, temperature)
Design for Entertainment (sights, sounds, music, activity)
- enhance the human experience whether during work or play
The problem statement:
Based on the official announcements, NASA is currently developing the capabilities needed to send humans to an asteroid in 2020s and to Mars in 2030s. One of the major challenges for achieving this goal is dealing with cosmic dust which consists of particles as small as 0.1 um. When astronauts from Apollo space program landed on the Moon, in just a few minutes they were covered in fine dust which then scratched up lenses, degraded seals and limb-joints, and it penetrated through 3 Kevlar-like layers of the astronauts space suits. Moon dust closely resembles silica dust at the microscopic level which causes silicosis, or "stone-grinder's disease." Silicosis was first described during the Great Depression after it killed hundreds of miners working the Hawk's Nest Tunnel through Gauley Mountain in West Virginia. Just a few months of exposure to the freshly cut quartz dust killed them in just five years. Mars dust presents an ever bigger problem: not only is it the same consistency as Moon dust, it's also comprised in large part of iron oxide, a strong natural oxidizer on par with lye that burns through organic materials like rubber, plastic, and human flesh.
Importance:
After the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 it became clear that the lunar dust represents a major issue. Not only it degraded the space suits, but it was also taken on board with astronauts who then inhaled it for the rest of the trip home. This presents a serious health risk for the astronauts, but also impacts the proper functioning of electronic circuits and instruments. Almost 50 years later we are facing the same issue. As stated by NASA in 2005, the number one risk for manned missions to Mars is the problem of dust. New solutions for design of EVA (extravehicular activity) suits that would protect the astronauts from harmful influence need to be found.
Our solution:
We propose incorporating an outer layer made of threaded carbon nanotubes (Nanosteel). Carbon nanotubes have physical properties that are hundreds of times stronger than steel as well as being inert to chemicals such as the corrosive dust on Mars. Carbon nanotubes can be grown in a cheap way which is easily upscaleable. Based on technology developed at the University of Texas at Dallas we propose to incorporate an outer layer of Nanosteel to the EVA suits worn by astronauts. This outer later will be impenetrable to the dust particles as well as being chemically resistant. At joints in the suit we propose to have a wrap around sheet of Nanosteel. This will ensure that dust cannot enter the joints of the space suits.
Benefits:
Our solution represents an easy implementation on already existing suits. That means that there is no need for a new design and production of suits. It only involves adding one additional layer. Despite its extreme structural properties Nanosteel is extremely light as well as flexible due to the fact that it is possible to make extremely thin layers. There are already some companies that are working on upscaling this technology so we envision that this technology can be implemented within a short time horizon.
