Water Ice Detection Research in Utopia Planitia Based on Simulation of Mars Rover Full-Polarimetric Subsurface Penetrating Radar

Abstract

The probe of China’s first Mars exploration mission, Tianwen-1, has been successfully launched. It will carry out scientific exploration on the topography, soil characteristics, water ice, climate, ionosphere, and physical fields of Mars. Different from other rovers landing on the moon and Mars, the Zhurong rover is equipped with a full polarimetric subsurface penetrating radar (FP-SPR) system for the first time. The radar’s mission is to depict the shallow subsurface structure of Mars and search for possible water ice. Therefore, in this paper, a 3D realistic structure model is established and numerically simulated based on the possible subsurface structure of Utopia Planitia (the landing area). Influencing factors such as topographical fluctuations, rocks, water ice, and the variation of dielectric constant of different layers are added to the model. The analysis of the acquired FP-SPR data set shows that the two-dimensional principal component analysis (2D-PCA) method can extract effective reflected signals from the radar data with noise interference and improve the data quality. These clearly imaged targets may be water ice blocks, so the application of 2D-PCA to FP-SPR data increases the imaging quality of suspected water ice targets. The results of this paper are the basis for future processing of the measured FP-SPR data on Mars, which will help to identify more details of subsurface structures.

Mars: new insights and unresolved questions

“…It also has a multispectral imager for mineralogical identification and distribution of the surrounding area. Zhurong also employs a sub-surface penetrating radar to investigate the 3D stratigraphic history of the area (Wang et al, 2021), and estimate the consistency of the regolith and the depth of the permafrost. This will provide new insight into the ancient water present on Mars and climatic changes during the Red Planet's history.…”

Geochemical and Biological Profiles of a Quartz Stone in the Qaidam Mars Analog Using LIBS: Implications for the Search for Biosignatures on Mars

“…Practically, the Zhurong rover is equipped with a LIBS spectrometer to characterize the elemental chemistry at its landing site in the southern Utopia Planitia. , Ice formation has previously been observed in Utopia Planitia, , and a large repository of subsurface water ice is proposed by ground-penetrating radar. , Thus, past or even present life could possibly be detected around this region. As clastic rocks are present on the Martian surface, multivariate analysis of LIBS data acquired by Zhurong can be used to initially filter highly potential biotic and abiotic signals from relatively homogeneous rocks.…”

Identification of Ballast Fouling Status and Mechanized Cleaning Efficiency Using FDTD Method

“…However, since the numerical simulation method is limited to generating only spherical particles, the simulation results may not accurately reflect real-world scenarios and should be considered as a reference for further studies. Building on these studies, references [17,18] employed a discrete element method to generate three-dimensional irregular polygonal particles for simulating Martian rock formations, which were used to predict and guide exploration of subsurface water on Mars using fully polarized GPR. Nevertheless, the limited quantity of generated irregular three-dimensional particles render them unsuitable for modeling railway ballast.…”