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

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

Automated summary

Yutu-2 is the longest operational Lunar rover and the first rover to land on the far side of the Moon. It uses ground-penetrating radar to investigate the geological structure of the lunar surface, providing valuable data for research.