US Patent 11866203 Dust removal in deep space environment

Systems and methods to remove dust from an extravehicular mobility unit (EMU) worn by an astronaut in a deep space environment involve one or more ionic shower units installed external to an interior volume of a facility. Each ionic shower unit releases positively charged ions and negatively charged ions in a specified direction to neutralize the dust and generate neutralized dust. The interior volume of the facility is defined by an interior hatch that is separated from an exterior hatch by an airlock. One or more collection units is installed external to the interior volume. Each collection unit traps the neutralized dust to prevent the dust from entering the interior volume.