NASA awarded $24.8 million to CU‑Boulder’s LASP to build DUSTER, a two‑instrument payload that will study charged lunar dust and near‑surface plasma at the Moon’s south pole during Artemis IV (planned for 2028). EDA will measure dust charge, speed, size and flux, while RESOLVE will profile electron density above the surface. Mounted on the MAPP rover from Lunar Outpost, DUSTER aims to protect astronauts and equipment and inform long‑term exploration strategies.
CU‑Boulder’s DUSTER Wins $24.8M to Study Hazardous Lunar Dust on Artemis IV
Dec 11
NASA has selected instruments developed at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder for deployment on the Moon as part of the Artemis IV mission, LASP announced on its website.
DUSTER — the DUst and plaSma environmenT survEyoR — was awarded $24.8 million under NASA’s Artemis IV Deployed Instruments Program to design and build a suite of sensors that astronauts will place on the lunar surface during Artemis IV.
What DUSTER Will Do
DUSTER is designed to characterize the charged dust and near‑surface plasma environment at the Moon’s south pole. The payload includes two complementary instruments:
- Electrostatic Dust Analyzer (EDA): Measures dust particle charge, velocity, size and flux to quantify how dust moves and interacts with equipment and habitats.
- Relaxation SOunder And DifferentiaL VoltagE (RESOLVE): Uses plasma sounding to profile the average electron density just above the lunar surface, revealing the plasma conditions that charge and mobilize dust.
Why This Matters
The Moon lacks a global magnetic field and has only a very thin atmosphere, so its surface is directly exposed to solar wind and ultraviolet radiation. Those conditions cause lunar dust to become electrically charged and adhere to surfaces. Charged dust can abrade and damage equipment and spacesuits, reduce solar panel performance, interfere with thermal radiators, and pose inhalation hazards to astronauts.
"We need to develop a complete picture of the dust and plasma environment at the lunar south pole and how it varies over time and location to ensure astronaut safety and the operation of exploration equipment," said DUSTER Principal Investigator Xu Wang, a senior researcher at LASP and lecturer in the CU Boulder Physics Department. "By studying this environment, we gain crucial insights that will guide mitigation strategies and methods to enable long‑term sustained human exploration on the Moon."
Timeline and Partners
Artemis IV is scheduled for 2028 and will follow Artemis III, which aims to return humans to the Moon for the first time since 1972 and target a South Pole landing. DUSTER’s instruments will be built at LASP and mounted on the Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP) rover, provided by Lunar Outpost, a robotics company based in Golden, Colorado.
"We are excited that LASP is contributing to the Artemis mission to deepen our knowledge of the Moon and beyond," said LASP Director Bethany Ehlmann. "Building on LASP’s long legacy of instrumentation, we are working to safeguard U.S. astronauts and lunar infrastructure while advancing scientific research that will help unravel the mysteries of our closest celestial neighbor."
DUSTER builds on LASP’s heritage of dust and plasma instruments flown on previous missions, including the Student Dust Counter aboard New Horizons, the Surface Dust Analyzer on the Europa Clipper mission, the Interstellar Dust Experiment on IMAP, and the MAVEN Langmuir Probe and Waves instrument at Mars.
