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Yes, I've done thruster blast tests on many lunar landing pad concepts including sintered soil, oven-sintered pavers, gravel, compacted soil, polymer infused soil, and fabrics. @paulvans and I spent a summer doing some of these tests. Some tests were done on a volcano😅
Back around 2010/11, our team spent a couple weeks at @mastenspace installing coupons of simulated lunar construction materials onto their landing pads. They hovered a rocket over the coupons. Some of the materials survived the blast. The other materials? Well let's just say...
3/...the other materials responded to the supersonic, searing blast of rocket exhaust "less than optimally." (They were never found.)
4/ We also had some "duh" moments. Back in the early days of the space program (as the old timers say), they believed they could scoop gravel from the Moon and build a landing pad simply by covering an area with gravel. So @paulvans & I put that idea to the test!🚀 The result?...
5/...It was like the gravel wasn't there at all. Duh! The gas goes between the gravel, scoops up soil, brings it back up between the gravel, and blows it away all over the place. Here's a picture of the eroded soil post-test, after we picked off the gravel to see what happened. 
6/ So the theory from "the early days of the space program" wasn't correct. You need an impermeable landing pad. But we made a lot of progress with various concepts and the robotics. The recent work isn't included here, yet, but here's SOME more info: sciences.ucf.edu/class/landing-…
