Air pressure matters when landing on sandy planets

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A sequence of high speed images reveals the plume thrown up when a sphere crashes into a layer of sand. Credit: Gabriel Caballero et al. Physical Review Letters
A sequence of high speed images reveals the plume thrown up when a sphere crashes into a layer of sand. Credit: Gabriel Caballero et al. Physical Review Letters

A steel ball dropped into loose, fine sand makes an impressive splash, according to physicists of the Physics of Fluids group investigating the fluid-like properties of sand at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. Such considerations factor into designing a rover to land on and move about Martian dunes or other dusty surfaces.


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