Student Name: Miguel Molina Jimenez

Advisor: Dr. Dimitri Mavris

Milestone: MS Thesis Final Examination (Defense)

Degree Program: Aerospace Engineering

Title: A Discrete Event Simulation Framework For Assessing Lunar Dust Impact On Moon Base Operations

Abstract: Lunar dust remains one of the most persistent operational hazards identified since the Apollo missions, and it continues to rank among the highest-priority technology gaps as NASA and international partners pursue a permanent surface settlement at the lunar south pole. Despite decades of individual-element research into dust generation, transport, and damage mechanisms, the existing literature lacks a systems-level framework capable of translating these isolated findings into an assessment of their cumulative impact on mission-level operations. This thesis addresses that gap by proposing a Discrete-Event Simulation (DES) framework that integrates dust transport, deposition, and performance-degradation models into a unified representation of a lunar outpost. The framework couples anthropogenic dust sources, including plume-surface interaction, rover traverses, and extravehicular activity (EVA), and links their cumulative effects to the operational availability of rovers and EVA suits. Three research questions guide the investigation, addressing the viability of a use-case mission, the endurance of EVA suits under dust accumulation, and the availability of rovers together with the required cleaning frequencies. The proposed methodology captures the stochastic nature of dust-impact frequencies and component failures, allowing the framework to characterize not only expected mission outcomes but also their variance and associated operational risk. Four experiments are defined to address these research questions, beginning with a baseline verification of the dust-inclusive model against a dust-free scenario, followed by design-of-experiments (DoE) studies isolating the influence of parameters such as rover speed, cleaning frequency, EVA conditions, rover formations, and their combined interactions. The proposed methodology is intended to serve as a foundation upon which higher-fidelity models and mission concepts of operations can be built to support future lunar campaign planning. 

Date and time: 2026-11-25, 9:00 AM

Location: Collaborative Visualization Environment (CoVE) Weber SST II

Committee:
Dr. Dimitri Mavris (advisor), School of Aerospace Engineering
Prof. John Christian, School of Aerospace Engineering
Dr. Tristan Sarton Du Jonchay, School of Aerospace Engineering (Until August 2026, when they left Georgia Tech)