Next stop: The moon

At UD, terrestrial efforts to improve space suit fabrics continue. In one project, Wagner and colleagues led by Prof. Huantian Cao in the Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies are upgrading UD-developed fabrics with improved potential to prevent lunar dust particles from penetrating a spacesuit’s outer layers. It’s the type of work that’s critical for extended stays on the moon to be possible.University of Delaware engineer and CRiSP faculty member Norman Wagner and colleagues at STF Technologies, LLC, are over the moon about having an experiment nearing NASA touchdown on the lunar surface. Prototype spacesuit materials made by UD and STF Technologies will be tested for their ability to repel moon dust as part of the Regolith Adherence Characterization (RAC) payload set to determine how moon dust particles stick to different materials exposed to the moon’s environment.  Read more about this amazing work here.