Empirical Scaling Laws of Rocket Exhaust Cratering

TL;DR

This paper investigates the scaling laws governing rocket exhaust cratering on planetary surfaces, aiming to develop physics-based models to predict crater growth and mitigate potential damage during spacecraft landing or takeoff.

Contribution

It introduces empirical scaling laws for crater growth due to rocket exhaust, providing foundational insights for physics-based modeling of lunar and planetary surface interactions.

Findings

Scaling laws for crater depth growth rate established

Insights into plume expansion in vacuum environments

Foundation for physics-based crater prediction models

Abstract

When launching or landing a spacecraft on the regolith of a terrestrial surface, special attention needs to be paid to the rocket exhaust cratering effects. If the effects are not controlled, the rocket cratering could damage the spacecraft or other surrounding hardware. The cratering effects of a rocket landing a planet's surface are not understood well, especially for the lunar case with the plume expanding in vacuum. As a result, the blast effects cannot be estimated sufficiently using analytical theories. It is necessary to develop physics-based simulation tools in order to calculate mission-essential parameters. In this work we test out the scaling laws of the physics in regard to growth rate of the crater depth. This will provide the physical insight necessary to begin the physics-based modeling.