NASA begins critical tests to map lunar dust hazards for Artemis landers
Engineers at NASA’s Langley Research Center are firing propulsion systems into simulated lunar regolith to understand how engine plumes interact with the Moon’s surface, a key step for the Artemis IV mission.
A team at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, has initiated a series of plume-surface interaction tests inside a 60-foot spherical vacuum chamber. The campaign aims to assess the hazards posed when a lunar lander’s engine exhaust blasts away at the Moon’s dust, soil, and rocks. As NASA prepares to return humans to the lunar surface starting with the Artemis IV mission in 2028, these tests will generate data to improve predictive models and influence the design of future space hardware.
For the first round of testing, the team is using an ethane plume simulation system designed by NASA’s Stennis Space Center and operated by Purdue University. The system generates a maximum of approximately 100 pounds of thrust and heats up without burning. Engineers are firing the system into a bin of "Black Point-1" simulant, a material with jagged, cohesive properties similar to actual lunar regolith. Each test run lasts about six seconds, during which instruments capture data on crater formation, the angle and height of the ejecta sheet, and the speed of regolith particles.
Ashley Korzun, the testing lead at NASA Langley, described the campaign as the most complex test of its kind to be undertaken in a vacuum chamber. She noted that understanding the physics of how regolith is displaced during landing is pivotal to ensuring crew safety, as displaced material can strike the lander or nearby payloads, science experiments, and rovers. The test facility is equipped with a version of the Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume Surface Studies system, which was previously used to image plume interactions during Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission-1 landing in 2025.
A second phase of testing is scheduled for later this year, utilising a 14-inch, 3D-printed hybrid rocket motor developed at Utah State University and tested at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. This motor produces around 35 pounds of thrust by igniting solid propellant and gaseous oxygen. Researchers will test both propulsion systems at various heights to simulate the landing and takeoff profiles of different spacecraft types.
The modular design of the test facility also prepares NASA for future missions to Mars. The lunar regolith simulant can be replaced with a sand-like Mars simulant, and the chamber pressure can be adjusted to simulate the Martian atmosphere. Daniel Stubbs, an engineer with the Human Landing Systems plume and aero environments team at NASA Marshall, stated that the data collected will be critical in developing and validating models to predict plume-surface interaction effects for landing on both the Moon and Mars.
The campaign involves multiple NASA centres, academic institutions, and commercial entities. Through the Artemis program, NASA aims to establish an enduring human presence on the lunar surface for scientific discovery and economic benefits, while building a foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.
