Cratering Soil by Impinging Jets of Gas, with Application to Landing Rockets on Planetary SurfacesSeveral physical mechanisms are involved in excavating granular materials beneath a vertical jet of gas. These occur, for example, beneath the exhaust plume of a rocket landing on the soil of the Moon or Mars. A series of experiments and simulations have been performed to provide a detailed view of the complex gas/soil interactions. Measurements have also been taken from the Apollo lunar landing videos and from photographs of the resulting terrain, and these help to demonstrate how the interactions extrapolate into the lunar environment. It is important to understand these processes at a fundamental level to support the ongoing design of higher-fidelity numerical simulations and larger-scale experiments. These are needed to enable future lunar exploration wherein multiple hardware assets will be placed on the Moon within short distances of one another. The high-velocity spray of soil from landing spacecraft must be accurately predicted and controlled lest it erosively damage the surrounding hardware.
Document ID
20130012454
Acquisition Source
Kennedy Space Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Metzger, Philip T. (NASA Kennedy Space Center Cocoa Beach, FL, United States)
Vu, B. T. (NASA Kennedy Space Center Cocoa Beach, FL, United States)
Taylor, D. E. (NASA Kennedy Space Center Cocoa Beach, FL, United States)
Kromann, M. J. (NASA Kennedy Space Center Cocoa Beach, FL, United States)
Fuchs, M. (NASA Kennedy Space Center Cocoa Beach, FL, United States)
Yutko, B. (NASA Kennedy Space Center Cocoa Beach, FL, United States)
Dokos, A. (NASA Kennedy Space Center Cocoa Beach, FL, United States)
Immer, Christopher D. (ASRC Aerospace Corp. Cocoa Beach, FL, United States)
Lane, J. E. (ASRC Aerospace Corp. Cocoa Beach, FL, United States)
Dunkel, Michael B. (Security Assistance Corp. Arlington, VA, United States)
Donahue, Carly M. (Colorado Univ. Boulder, CO, United States)
Latta, R. C., III (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Univ. Daytona Beach, FL, United States)