Editor’s note: This article was originally published in December and updated on August 26, 2026, with details about the latest phase of testing, including new videos and images from recent test runs.
NASA and its commercial partners are conducting advanced lunar lander testing to better understand what happens when rocket engine exhaust, known as plume, strikes the Moon’s dust, soil, and rocks. Researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, have begun a major series of plume-surface interaction tests inside a 60-foot spherical vacuum chamber.
The tests are designed to improve scientists’ understanding of the hazards created when a spacecraft lands on or lifts off from the lunar surface. As NASA prepares to return astronauts to the Moon and begin developing a sustainable lunar base with Artemis IV in 2028, the data will help researchers refine predictive models and guide the design of future spacecraft, landers, payloads, and surface equipment.
“This plume-surface interaction ground test is the most complex of its kind conducted in a vacuum chamber,” said Ashley Cozen, NASA Langley’s test principal. “If I’m on a spacecraft and I try to move all the regolith during landing, some of it will hit the lander. Some of it will travel toward other assets, including payloads, science experiments, rovers, and other equipment. Understanding this physics is critical to protecting the crew and ensuring mission success.”
Multiple NASA centers, universities, and commercial organizations are participating in the lunar plume-surface interaction testing campaign.
Korzun’s team is testing two different propulsion systems inside the vacuum chamber. The first phase uses an ethane plume simulation system designed by NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and built and operated by Purdue University. The system produces up to approximately 100 pounds of thrust. Although it generates heat, it does not burn, allowing researchers to safely simulate key aspects of rocket exhaust during the initial tests.
The research team recently began firing the ethane system into a simulated lunar regolith container known as Black Point 1. The container measures approximately 6.5 feet in diameter and 1 foot deep and is filled with material designed to replicate the jagged, cohesive properties of real lunar soil.
Researchers are using a range of instruments, including stereo camera systems, to study the interaction between rocket plume and simulated lunar regolith. The team that captured images of the plume and surface interaction during Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 lunar landing in 2025 is also contributing data and imaging expertise. Each test lasts about six seconds, but the instruments collect detailed information about crater formation, the angle and height of ejecta sheets, the distribution of solid particles, and the speed at which regolith is blasted from the container.
A second phase of testing later this year will use a 14-inch, 3D-printed hybrid rocket motor developed at Utah State University in Logan, Utah, and tested at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The motor produces approximately 35 pounds of thrust and combines solid propellant with gaseous oxygen to create a hot, powerful exhaust stream that simulates a real rocket engine on a smaller scale.
Researchers will test both propulsion systems at different heights to examine how altitude affects plume-surface interactions during lunar landings and liftoffs.
“This gives us a very wide range of test conditions,” Korzun said. “It allows us to study many types of spacecraft and better understand what happens when a vehicle lands on or takes off from the lunar surface.”
Korzun said the test campaign is designed to support more than future Moon missions. Its modular equipment can also be adapted for Mars research. Scientists can replace the lunar regolith simulant with a sand-like Martian simulant, while hardware and instruments can be exchanged to represent a future Mars lander. The vacuum chamber can also be adjusted to simulate the atmospheric pressure of Mars rather than the near-vacuum conditions found on the Moon.
“Mars has always been on our roadmap,” Korzun said.
For now, however, NASA’s focus remains firmly on the Moon.
“This test campaign is one of the most flight-relevant and highly instrumented plume-surface interaction test series ever conducted by NASA,” said Daniel Stubbs, an engineer with NASA Marshall’s Human Landing System Plume and Aviation Environment Team. “Data from these tests at NASA Langley will be critical to developing and validating models that predict the effects of plume-surface interactions during landings on the Moon and Mars. These models will help ensure mission success and astronaut safety for NASA’s Human Landing System.”
Through the Artemis program, NASA plans to send astronauts on increasingly complex missions to explore the Moon, conduct scientific research, support economic development, establish a long-term human presence, and prepare for the first crewed missions to Mars.
For more information about NASA’s Artemis program and lunar exploration plans, see below.
Source: www.nasa.gov