Miniature Ground Penetrating Radar for Planetary Subsurface Characterization: Preliminary Field Test Results

Details Miniature Ground Penetrating Radar for Planetary Subsurface Characterization: Preliminary Field Test Results Miniature Ground Penetrating Radar for Planetary Subsurface Characterization: Preliminary Field Test Results

Dec 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agufm.p52a0572k&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2001, abstract #P52A-0572

Physics

5464 Remote Sensing, 5494 Instruments And Techniques, 6225 Mars, 6994 Instruments And Techniques

Scientific paper

We have developed a miniature range-gated step-frequency (RGSF) ground penetrating radar (GPR) for use in mapping subsurface structures from planetary rovers, in particular, the rover associated with the Mars 2007 Smart Lander Mission. At each stepped frequency the antenna is used to both transmit and receive RF radiation. Radiation scattered back from the subsurface is amplified, mixed with a frequency reference, detected as an in-phase amplitude, and converted from the frequency to the time/distance domain for interpretation. When fully developed, the frequency range will be from approximately 10 to 500 MHz. Unlike conventional impulse GPRs, the RGSF system has a very wide bandwidth, tuned at any instant to a narrowband configuration. This capability provides both enhanced significant depth penetration and delineation of fine-scale interfaces. Our prototype GPR has miniaturized radar electronics (3 x 10 x 3 cm, < 5W power, 900 g mass (mainly battery)) and a resistively loaded dipole antenna (2.3 m length, currently operating from 30 MHz \- 150 MHz). Field testing of the prototype has been conducted over alluvium and a basaltic lava flow near the Lunar Crater Volcanic Field, Nevada, along a break-out channel north of the Silver Lake Playa, Mojave Desert, California, and over till and ash on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Comparisons to known subsurface structures for the test sites demonstrate that the system is capable of resolving fine-scale variations in lava flow thickness, the depth to bedrock beneath the aeolian fill and alluvium in the break-out channel, and variations in till and ash thickness, from depths from meters to approximately 10 meters.

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