AVVISO DI SEMINARIO

Martedi 20 giugno 2023, h. 15.00-16.00

presso l’Aula 3 della Scuola di Ingegneria Aerospaziale

Via Salaria 851, Roma

Prof. Joseph Wang

School of Engineering, Los Angeles, CA 90089

josephjw@usc.edu

Numerical and Experimental Studies of Plasma/Dust Interactions for Astronaut at the Lunar Terminator

Lacking a global magnetic field and an atmosphere, astronauts on extravehicular activities on the lunar surface are directly exposed to the space plasma environment. During the Apollo mission, the lunar dust environment created serious issues for astronauts, but plasma charging was not considered a risk because astronauts always stayed under sunlit where there is no significant charging due to photoelectron emission. However, future lunar missions will explore the lunar terminator and far-side where high voltage charging (hundreds to thousands of volts negative) can occur. This has raised concerns of serious risks for astronauts due to charging interactions as well as enhanced dust interactions. This talk presents an overview of recent progresses in understanding plasma and dust interaction for astronauts at the lunar terminator.

Biosketch

Joseph Wang is professor of astronautics and aerospace and mechanical engineering at University of Southern California (USC). Prior to joining the faculty at USC, he was a principal engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and on the aerospace engineering faculty at Virginia Tech. He received his Ph.D in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT.