In March as Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Mission-1 landed on the Moon, researchers from NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, employed a novel camera system to capture first-of-its-kind data imagery of the interaction between the lander's engine plumes and the lunar surface.
That kind of data is critical, because as the United States returns to the Moon, both through NASA's Artemis campaign and the commercialization of space, researchers need to understand the hazards that may occur when a lander's engine plumes blast away at the lunar dust, soil, and rocks.
These data will be valuable to NASA's commercial partners as they develop their human landing systems that will safely transport astronauts from lunar orbit to the Moon's surface and back for Artemis, beginning with Artemis III in 2027.
A team at NASA Langley has initiated a series of plume-surface interaction tests inside a massive 60-foot vacuum.
