Moving Beyond Apollo: Vacuum Ground Testing to Reduce Plume-Surface Interaction Risks to Lunar Landers

NASA’s Artemis Program will return humans to the surface of the Moon for the first time since Apollo using the Human Landing System (HLS). Plume-surface interactions (PSI) pose a potential hazard to all propulsive landing vehicles and future nearby assets that will be part of a sustained lunar architecture. Risks due to uncertainty in PSI predictions have challenged lunar landers since the 1960s, and understanding these phenomena further remains critical to enabling NASA’s lunar exploration goals. To this end, the HLS Program has funded a risk reduction ground test to obtain data relevant for application to environments produced by large landing systems. New data are needed to understand PSI and effects with the potential to differ from those experienced by the Apollo landers. This presentation will discuss the test concept, facility, research goals, methods, and planned data products.