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A comment on The Damage to Lunar Orbiting Spacecraft Caused by the Ejecta of Lunar Landers. Parent comment

Re:The Damage to Lunar Orbiting Spacecraft Caused by the Eje... by LorenPechtel on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @02:37PM (#36048828)
The ejecta would go out to the side and not harm the lander. I'm just amazed that the ejecta is being thrown hard enough to be a threat at orbital altitude.
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Re:The Damage to Lunar Orbiting Spacecraft Caused by the Eje... by adastra22 on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @02:57PM (#36049086)
It’s a combination of the moon’s orbital velocity being low and the exhaust velocity being high.
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Re:The Damage to Lunar Orbiting Spacecraft Caused by the Eje... by LorenPechtel on Wednesday May 24, 2023 @12:45PM (#36060729)
I'm still surprised that it can impart that much velocity, though.
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Re:The Damage to Lunar Orbiting Spacecraft Caused by the Eje... by adastra22 on Thursday May 25, 2023 @04:35AM (#36068346)
Well is it not intuitive that something being blown by a moving fluid approaches speeds equal to the speed of the fluid?
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Re:The Damage to Lunar Orbiting Spacecraft Caused by the Eje... by azernik on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @02:58PM (#36049113)
That's a simplifying assumption (per the paper). In reality it would be a distribution, with a lot less going up than to the sides.

Plus then you're dealing with damage to your hopefully-smooth landing site.

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