Along with a team of 15 other CalTech students, Pabón Madrid helped develop a proposal to overcome one of the great challenges of the future US expedition to the moon, La Voz de América emphasizes.
“Developing technologies that help expand the human frontier is a dream come true,” he excitedly told The Voice of America.
Four months of intensive work in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic enabled this young Venezuelan and his teammates to develop the proposal selected as one of seven winners of NASA’s “BIG Idea Challenge,” which aims to neutralize lunar dust, potentially toxic and strong. abrasive.
And when this dust starts to float, the astronaut can breathe it in and it can get into the lungs and cause things like sarcoidosis. So we want to keep the living environment clean, ”explains the young engineering student.
“The proposal we’re presenting to NASA actually extends a technology that already exists. They are called ‘electrodynamic shields’. It can be used in the lunar module to remove any dust when the astronaut changes suits or takes off his helmet or visor, ”he explained.
Now, the US space agency is funding the construction of the panels designed by CalTech students as part of the second phase of the challenge, which is part of the Artemis project, which aims to send humans to the moon by 2024.
“Moondust affects everything we do on the moon, so we need many strategies to reduce or prevent its abrasive effects. These innovative student concepts can help solve some of the lunar dust’s most pressing problems,” said Niki Werkheiser, director of NASA’s Game Changing Development program. within the Space Technology Directorate.