LUNAR DUST EXPOSURE: The lunar dust environment poses numerous risks to long term reliability and mission success. Test techniques can be employed to understand sensitivity to lunar dust in the operation and performance of components and subsystems that make up the Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS).

Lunar simulants are used to test components that may contain bearings, bushings, gears, ball-valves, seals, lubricants, connectors, electronics and various rotating surfaces to name a few. Testing results provide valuable insight to reliability predictions, planned maintenance of a system and identify potential failure modes and help ensure proper system performance and achieved reliability.