Landing large lunar landers such as SpaceX's Starship HLS and Blue Origin's Blue Moon is going to be risky until we better understand and can account for plume surface interactions. How the gas from rocket engines interacts with regolith will determine how we proceed with large landers and permanent infrastructure on the Moon or Mars. From NASA's Artemis III to human settlements on Mars, plume effects and surface science need to be well understood for landing safely.
Thumbnail background image credit: SpaceX
In-video image and video credit: SpaceX, Blue Origin, NASA, UCF, Masten Space Systems / Astrobotic, ICON
Lunar Surface Science Workshop LSSW 25: Plume Surface Interactions playlist: rucl...