Landing on the Moon carries a double risk: a powerful engine plume can damage the spacecraft itself and everything around it. Researchers at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) have proposed a solution - a modular pad with internal channels to divert the exhaust. This summer the team conducted three firing tests of the prototype at the university's rocket research center.
On Earth, water deluge systems divert the plume, but there is little water on the Moon. There is no atmosphere there either, so the exhaust expands freely and strikes directly into the surface, accelerating dust and debris. The new design is intended to capture the flow and channel it to the side, reducing the thermal load.
The prototype, 12 feet (about 3.7 meters) in diameter, was assembled from individual concrete blocks. On Earth, concrete stands in for a material that they hope to obtain in the future from lunar soil - regolith. Built-in sensors recorded how the flow passed through the ventilation during the three engine firings.
According to project lead Dr. Judy Schneider, the tests showed that the plume can be redirected and that the structure does not overheat the way a solid one does. That was precisely the goal - to verify that the ventilated design withstands the thermal load better than a monolithic one.
The main idea is modularity. Delivering materials from Earth is expensive and difficult, so the pad is proposed to be made from blocks sintered or melted from local regolith. Such elements are easier to transport, assemble, repair and expand.
UAH students are involved in the project: master's student Kadis Emmons, future bachelor's mechanical engineering students Isaac Menzel and Matthew Allmon, and construction student Andrew Angelucci. For them, this is hands-on experience in experimental testing and design.
The next step is a 20-foot (6.1-meter) pad for additional tests at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. It remains to be determined how to scale the technology and whether it can withstand repeated landings. For now, this is a prototype and ground tests, not ready lunar infrastructure.