Measurements of the Collection Efficiency of an Air Cyclone in Lunar Gravity

Abstract

We report experimental results on the collection efficiency of an air cyclone operating with a lunar dust simulant under lunar gravity. Microgravity collection efficiency is, to within experimental uncertainty, not different from collection efficiencies obtained in one-g experiments. We discuss a heuristic model of particle motion in an air cyclone that accounts for this unexpected result, and provide a framework for future experiments to clarify the operational properties of cyclone filtration systems in microgravity.