Performance verification of Lunar Regolith Penetrating Array Radar of Chang’E-5 mission

Abstract

Lunar Regolith Penetrating Array Radar (LRPR) is one main payload of the Lander for Chinese Chang’E-5 (CE-5) mission. It is used to support the drilling and sampling device and to detect lunar regolith thickness and structure of the landing site. LRPR will only work in situ under static status, so the antenna array is employed. Since the antenna array is about 90 cm high from the ground, the layout is irregular, and the metal structure of the lander seriously interferes with LRPR, these factors make it very difficult to reconstruct the image of the drilling area, so the performance verification must be carried out. We propose a set of methods to process LRPR’s data and reconstruct image. The verification experiments demonstrate that these methods are suitable for LRPR, the thickness and structure of the lunar regolith from zero to two meters can be clearly mapped, the vertical resolution is a few centimeters, and the electromagnetic properties of the subsurface can be estimated. Therefore, the performance of LRPR meets the requirements, and LRPR can successfully support drilling and sampling.