Understanding and Mitigating Plume Effects During Powered Descents on the Moon and Mars

TL;DR

This white paper reviews lunar and Martian lander plume surface interactions during powered descent, highlighting phenomenology, impacts, mitigation strategies, and strategic recommendations to improve understanding and safety of planetary surface missions.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of PSI phenomena, impacts, mitigation techniques, and strategic recommendations for future lunar and Martian landing missions.

Findings

PSI effects can significantly impact hardware and environment.

Dedicated descent imagers are crucial for understanding PSI.

Open data and targeted measurements are essential for mitigation.

Abstract

This 2020 Decadal Survey White Paper reviews what is known about lunar and martian lander Plume Surface Interactions (PSI) during powered descent. This includes an overview of the phenomenology and a description of the induced hardware and environmental impacts. Then it provides an overview of mitigation techniques and a summary of the outstanding questions and strategic knowledge gaps. It finishes with five recommendations: to include dedicated descent imagers on every surface mission so that PSI can be directly recorded and reviewed by ground teams; as far as possible, to make all data related to PSI effects publicly accessible; to develop methods and instruments for making key measurements of PSI; to assess and record key flight data; and to invest funding into studies of long-term infrastructure architectures and mitigation techniques.