The laboratory is involved in NASA's Lunar Exploration program, developing technologies for the mitigation of lunar dust deposition on spacesuits, optical instruments, thermal radiators, solar panels, and other equipment during lunar exploration missions. The laboratory, in collaboration with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has developed instrumentation for planetary exploration missions, in an effort to characterize the electrostatic properties of the environment.

Some recent and ongoing research projects in the laboratory include:

• Development of Electrodynamic Dust Shields for dust mitigation on the moon and Mars
• State-of-the-art characterization of Apollo lunar regolith
• Electrostatic beneficiation of lunar regolith for In Situ resource unitization
• Electrostatic Characterizaton of Space Shuttle and International Space Station thermal control system blankets
• Electrostatic Characterization of Shuttle Crew Escape Equipment Life Preserver and Life Raft Inflators
• Electrostatic Characterization of Shuttle hydrogen fuel lines
• Electrostatic Characterization and design modification of the Shuttle Trust Vector Control Actuator blankets
• Electrostatic precipitation for removal of contaminants in high-pressure nitrogen lines
• Investigation of dust-generated plasma discharges on Mars as a mechanism in the degradation of organic matter
• Electrostatics Evaluation and Design Recommendation of the Hubble Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph hardware

The laboratory possesses state-of-the-art equipment for electrostatics and suface physics research and testing, including five vacuum chambers capable of pressures of the order of millionths of kPa.