A Mines team has been selected as one of the awardees of the 2021 NASA BIG Idea Challenge on Dust Mitigation Technologies for Lunar Applications. The team consisting of graduate students Travis Vazansky, Bailey Burns, Thao Nguyen, David Purcell, Jonathan Slavik, Miguel Coto Villanueva, Nathan Davis, and Sterling Loza, along with faculty members George Sowers, Christopher Dreyer, and Kevin Cannon, teamed up with ICON, Masten Space Systems, and Adherent Technologies Inc. for the “Lunar In-Situ Landing/Launch Environment (LILL-E) Pad” project. The objective of the proposed work is to address landing dust prevention and mitigation on the Moon by developing a binder-regolith reinforced surface and a landing/launch pad made out of a carbon fiber fabric barrier anchored to the lunar surface. The team was featured in an article written in Leonard David’s Inside Outer Space.
