Just as Batman’s suit protected him from enemy attacks in his quest to save Gotham City, Boeing engineer Kavya Manyapu began envisioning a super suit that would protect astronauts from brutal environmental attacks in their quest to explore space.

But the astronauts’ fight is with something much smaller — though arguably, no less dangerous — than Batman’s. Their battle is with dust.

“I was really inspired by Batman and I was like, ‘It would be really cool that if we made a suit and if I could just press a button and it would just, like, repel the dust from your body,’ ” said Manyapu, who came up with idea in 2013 while earning her doctorate at the University of North Dakota. “And if it had a force field that doesn’t allow dust to come in contact with the suit.”

Lunar dust was a major problem for the Apollo astronauts in the 1960s and 1970s. During the 1972 Apollo 17 mission, the dust was so sharp and abrasive it wore through multiple layers of astronaut Harrison Schmitt’s boot, which was made of a material similar to Kevlar, according to 2008 Science Daily article. Apollo astronauts also reported symptoms similar to hay fever after breathing in the dust and difficulty moving the spacesuits’ joints after dust found its way inside.

“The dust degraded the space suits, which experienced wear and tear and abrasion; the radiators were coated with dust, the lunar rover had issues with dust,” Manyapu said.

She set out to solve the problem. And it turns out, astronauts can be more like superheroes than she thought.

Over the past six years, Manyapu has developed a way to weave pure carbon molecules — called carbon nanotubes, which are 100 times stronger than steel and one-sixth its weight — into the fabric of space suits. This molecule, which is so small you could fit 80,000 of them in the width of a human hair, is a great conductor of electricity and heat.

So, when Manyapu runs an electric current through the nanotubes, the dust is literally pushed off the suit.

Essentially, it’s a self-cleaning suit.

Though the technology still is being tested, it’s development comes at the perfect time. Last month, Vice President Mike Pence directed NASA to return humans to the moon in 2024, four years earlier than planned, by “any means necessary.” And those astronauts are going to need space suits.

“I’m really excited to see if … I can help use this technology and even help in general about how do we mitigate about dust contamination if we are planning to go back there soon and stay there long,” Manyapu said.

The dust-repelling fabric also would be useful on an eventual human mission to Mars. Just like moon dust, Mars dust is harmful — but for a different reason. The Red Planet dust is toxic because of it contains high levels of perchlorate — a chemical that is a component in rocket propellants.

Perchlorate has been found at several landing sites on Mars, and scientists believe it could be present across the entire planet.

This could be good because perchlorates can be a source of oxygen both for life support and surface operations, but it can be hazardous to astronauts, primarily because it can impair thyroid gland function.

“Exposure to environmental perchlorate causes the opposite of hyperthyroidism, namely hypothyroidism — an underactive thyroid,” according to a 2016 Discover Magazine article. “It would be devastating for Martian colonists.”

Hypothyroidism can cause fatigue, cold sensitivity and weight gain.

Manyapu said it could take up to seven years for the technology to be ready for use on an actual space suit, assuming she gets the proper funding.

In April, Manyapu sent swatches of the material to the International Space Station for testing. The swatches laced with carbon nanotubes were placed this week on a rack outside the space station where they will stay for a year, allowing researchers to see how the fabric reacts to the space environment.

But while she is awaiting the results of the space station tests, she is already testing the technique on other types of fabric and materials, such as those that would be used for lunar or Martian habitats.

Alex Stuckey writes about NASA and science for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey.