Data processing and some results of Chang'E-5 LRPR ground verification

Abstract

Lunar Regolith Penetrating Radar (LRPR) is a high resolution penetrating and imaging radar, which is a main payload onboard the detector of Chang'E-5. It is mounted on the bottom of the detector of Chang'E-5 and its main task is to survey the lunar regolith thickness and subsurface structure of landing domain. Because the detector is static, LRPR has to work only in stationary condition and is designed as a multi-input and multi-output ground penetrating radar system, employing an antenna array including 12 off-ground Vivaldi antennas as transmitters or receivers. When one serves as the transmitter antenna, the others are as the receiver antennas, in turn, to complete all scan probe task. During the development of the equipment, the detection capability and the imaging method of processing the dataset must be verified on the ground. A multi-offset diffraction stack migration algorithm to process LRPR dataset for obtaining a high resolution image of detect domain is developed on this paper. The results of ground verification demonstrate that the multi-offset diffraction stack migration algorithm can be applied to process LRPR dataset, and LRPR meets the design specifications: detecting depth over 2m, and detecting resolution better than 5 cm in lunar regolith.