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Space suit experiment helping NASA return to the Moon

Feb 26, 2025

2 min

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A rocket now in lunar orbit is holding some very precious cargo, with University of Delaware ties, that will help scientists better understand what it will take to successfully land on — and potentially inhabit — the moon.


UD researcher Norman Wagner and his company STF Technologies, LLC, have an experiment onboard the SpaceX Falcon 9, which launched Jan. 15 and is expected to land on the lunar surface the first week of March.


The UD experiment is part of the Regolith Adherence Characterization (RAC) payload set to determine how moon dust particles stick to different materials exposed to the moon’s environment. These particles, called regolith, are fine and very sharp, similar to volcanic rock or dust found on Earth.


Prototype spacesuit materials made by UD and STF Technologies will be tested for their ability to repel this moon dust in experiments strapped outside a lunar lander designed to carry payloads to the moon’s surface.


The UD spacesuit shell textiles are treated with multiple nanotechnologies, including shear thickening fluid, a revolutionary material co-developed by UD and STF Technologies that normally behaves like a liquid, but becomes a solid under impact, a useful feature when puncture resistance is a priority. The hope is that beyond puncture protection, the STF-infused spacesuit textiles will offer greater dust deterrence, increasing the material’s lifespan in space.


Other RAC experiments will test materials for solar cells, optical systems, coatings and sensors.


In other related work, the Wagner lab currently has experiments aboard the International Space Station (ISS) through a NASA collaboration to develop new construction materials for lunar exploration.


These ISS experiments, part of a Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) that launched last November, extend Wagner’s previous work on ways to make concrete in space, for such items as rocket landing pads, buildings, roads, habitats and other structures. More recent work in the Wagner lab by undergraduate researchers and doctoral students focuses on methods for curing 3D-printed materials in space, including using microwave technology.


“Here we aren’t trying to get rid of the moon dust — we are trying to leverage it to create extraterrestrial cement through additive manufacturing on the moon,” said Wagner, Unidel Robert L. Pigford Chair in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.


Wagner is hoping for a soft moon landing on Sunday, March 2.


“A lot of things have to go right between now and then, but it's exciting,” he said. “We'll be among the first of this generation to do experiments on the surface of the moon.”


Contact mediarelations@udel.edu to set up an interview.



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