Evidence of shallow basaltic lava layers in Von Kármán crater from Yutu-2 Lunar Penetrating Radar

• DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2023.115837
• Publication Date: 2023-10-14T14:49:07Z
• Authors: Iraklis Giannakis; Javier Martin-Torres; Yan Su; Jianqing Feng; Feng Zhou; Maria-Paz Zorzano; Craig Warren; Antonios Giannopo...
• Keywords: Lunar mare; Regolith; Ground-Penetrating Radar; Ilmenite; Lunar craters; Lunar soil

Yutu-2 – the rover from Chang'E-4 mission is longest operational Lunar rover, and first to land on far side of Moon. It second planetary be equipped with ground-penetrating radar (GPR), one few in-situ geophysical techniques used in exploration. Since landing 2019, has travelled more than 1 kilometre Von Kármán (VK) crater, been able investigate dielectric properties shallow ejecta using its on-board high frequency GPR channels. In this paper, we use advanced signal processing attributes infer a detailed structure ≈30 metres subsurface, providing valuable information ilmenite content site. Both suggest sequence Imbrian basaltic layers overlaying low-ilmenite blanket.