The Effect of Reduced Ambient Pressure on Plume-Surface Interaction Cratering Dynamics

What is it about?

Plume-surface interactions (PSI) are a significant risk to the safe landing of rockets on planetary bodies. In this study, we conduct experiments to understand how the craters formed due to plume-surface interactions change between Earth atmospheric conditions to that of reduced/sub-atmospheric conditions commonly encountered in other planetary bodies such as the Moon and Mars. Our results shed light on some of the complicated physics behinds PSI, which leads to the formation of unique cratering patterns occurring only at sub-atmospheric conditions.

Featured Image