Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, October 29 (Xinhua)-- A team of researchers at the University of Central Florida recently tested an instrument designed to measure the size and speed of surface particles produced by exhaust fumes from rocket-powered landers on the moon or Mars, according to the NASA website. With the support of the NASA Flight opportunity Program, the researchers evaluated the instrument through a series of flight tests on the Astrobotic Xodiac rocket-powered lander in Mojave, California.

CTOnews.com learned from NASA that when a spacecraft lands on the moon or Mars, rocket exhaust plumes produce weathering ejections (abrasive dust and large particles moving at high speed), which can damage the lander and surrounding structures. Understanding how rocket engine exhaust affects jets will help mission designers model soil erosion rates, particle size distributions and velocities related to plume-surface interactions, so as to plan lunar landings more effectively.

Researchers at the University of Central Florida have developed a laser instrument called Ejecta STORM (Sheet Tracking, Opacity, and Regolith Maturity) to meet this demand.

Four tethered flights enable researchers to test the integration of the system with the lander and the operation under flight conditions that simulate the plume effect of the lunar lander. These tests are based on data collected during flight activities conducted using Xodiac in 2020.

The researchers hope that the technology will provide information for model development, reduce the risk of future lunar landings, and eventually improve mission design for rover-based planetary science missions, manned lunar and other celestial missions, and on-site resource utilization.

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