![\"Ashley](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ashley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIn March, NASA researchers employed a new camera system to capture data imagery of the interaction between Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost Mission-1 lander\u2019s engine plumes and the lunar surface.<\/p>\n
Through NASA\u2019s Artemis campaign, this data will help researchers understand the hazards that may occur when a lander\u2019s engine plumes blast away at the lunar dust, soil, and rocks.<\/p>\n
The data also will be used by NASA\u2019s commercial partners as they develop their human landing systems to safely transport astronauts from lunar orbit to the Moon\u2019s surface and back, beginning with Artemis III.<\/p>\n
To better understand the science of lunar landings, a team at NASA\u2019s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, has initiated a series of plume-surface interaction tests inside a massive 60-foot spherical vacuum chamber.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ashley Korzun<\/p>\n
PSI Testing Lead at NASA Langley<\/p>\n
\u201cThis plume-surface interaction ground test is the most complex test of its kind to be undertaken in a vacuum chamber,\u201d said Ashley Korzun, testing lead at NASA Langley. \u201cIf I\u2019m in a spacecraft and I\u2019m going to move all that regolith while landing, some of that\u2019s going to hit my lander. Some of it\u2019s going to go out toward other things \u2014 payloads, science experiments, eventually rovers and other assets. Understanding those physics is pivotal to ensuring crew safety and mission success.\u201d<\/p>\n
The campaign, which will run through spring of 2026, should provide an absolute treasure trove of data that researchers will be able to use to improve predictive models and influence the design of space hardware. As Korzun mentioned, it\u2019s a big undertaking, and it involves multiple NASA centers, academic institutions, and commercial entities both small and large.<\/p>\n
Korzun\u2019 s team will test two types of propulsion systems in the vacuum sphere. For the first round of tests this fall, they are using an ethane plume simulation system designed by NASA\u2019s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and built and operated by Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. The ethane system generates a maximum of about 100 pounds of thrust \u2014 imagine the force necessary to lift or support a 100-pound person. It heats up but doesn\u2019t burn.<\/p>\n
After completing the ethane tests, the second round of tests will involve a 14-inch, 3D-printed hybrid rocket motor developed at Utah State University in Logan, Utah, and recently tested at NASA\u2019s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama<\/a>. It produces around 35 pounds of thrust, igniting both solid propellant and a stream of gaseous oxygen to create a hot, powerful stream of rocket exhaust, simulating a real rocket engine but at smaller scale for this test series.<\/p>\n Researchers will test both propulsion systems at various heights, firing them into a roughly six-and-a-half-foot diameter, one-foot-deep bin of simulated lunar regolith, called\u00a0Black Point-1<\/a> that has jagged, cohesive properties similar to lunar regolith.<\/p>\n \u201cIt gives us a huge range of test conditions,\u201d Korzun said, \u201cto be able to talk about spacecraft of all different kinds going to the Moon, and for us to understand what they\u2019re going to do as they land or try to take back off from the surface.\u201d<\/p>\n Researchers will use this 14-inch, 3D-printed hybrid rocket motor during the second phase of testing.<\/p>\n Daniel Stubbs<\/p>\n Engineer with HLS Plume and Aero Environments Team at NASA Marshall<\/p>\n![\"Daniel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/stubbs.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n