Plume Surface Interactions in Lunar and Mars Landings
When
Where
Dr. Philip Metzger
Research Professor
University of Central Florida
This talk will provide an overview of 28 years of progress unraveling the physics of how rocket exhaust interacts with planetary regoliths. Emphasis will be on the lunar case, with some discussion of the different effects that occur in Mars landings due to the atmospheric collimation of the plume and the different soil properties. Recent progress has developed an equation to predict surface scour under the plume on the Moon or other airless bodies, but parts of the physics require empirical calibration so better data from lunar landings is required. Several types of sensors are in develop, which will help constrain the physics in different ways. The ejecta are known to travel at high velocities, even exceeding lunar escape velocity, and can cause extreme damage to hardware even at large distances. In contrast to the physics of surface scour, very little is known about the deep cratering phenomena that occur on the Earth and Mars and may occur on the Moon with larger landers.
Host: Dr. Mark Marley