Numerical Computation Of Lunar Crater’s Impact On Singular And Multiple Lunar Dusts’ Electrostatic Levitation

Last century, the developed countries explored the Moon, and successfully sentspacecraft and human beings to the moon, getting the first-hand data about the Moon.Especially, what impressed deeply on the astronauts is the phenomenon of lunar dusts’levitation. This fact can be attributed to several factors, such as the microgravity, thespacecraft’s crash and the electric field of the Moon. Scientists have researched theimpact of all the factors on the lunar dusts’ levitation within the condition of flatnesswith the method of experiment and numerically simulation. However, the Moon is notflat, which means lunar craters are not negligible. In this paper, the lunar crater’sinfluence on the lunar dusts was researched. The paper’s work involved two steps:firstly, computing the static electric field of the lunar surface by the method of PIC(particle in cell) on the basis of electromagnetic fields theory. Then, basing on theresult of last step and kinematic equations, a test particle was introduced to researchthe respective effect of the lunar crater on the motion trajectory of lunar dust withvarious radiuses, and got the maximum radius of the dusts that was able to levitateover the position nearby the crater. In the simulation, the distribution of lunar dusts’position over time was shown, and the dusts’ distribution on the lunar surface wascomputed as well. Besides, this work researched0.3meter lunar dusts’ levitationnearby the crater. By the method of the Hertz elastic contact theory andelectromagnetic field theory, the paper considered the collisions among the dusts. Theinteraction between the charged particles and space electric field was also considered,adopting the DEM.The results show that the lunar crater has little to do with the motion of the lunardusts far away from it, while it affects the charged dusts greatly nearby it. The dustswill move into the crater, and the less the dusts are, the more easily the movementtakes place; the maximum radius of lunar dust that is able to levitate upwards hits thetop in the position of the crater’s side wall, while that of dust locating outwards thecrater is relatively smaller; The charged dusts make the electric field more smooth;When the system becomes balanced, the number of lunar dusts is the largest in thetwo side wall of the crater, and the least near the crater boundary. The number of dustsfar away from the crater remains the same as that of dusts in the condition withoutcrater. The innovative of the paper lies in the consideration of the lunar crater, theremarkable number of the dusts, the adhesion force between the dusts and lunarsurface, and the collision among dusts. This paper is conducive to select the ideallanding location for the lunar lander.