Moon-Based Ground Penetrating Radar Derivation of the Helium-3 Reservoir in the Regolith at the Chang'E-3 Landing Site

Abstract

The Moon-based Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) 1 carried by the Yutu rover performed in-situ radar measurements 2 to explore extraterrestrial objects, which provides an unprece-3 dented opportunity to study the shallow subsurface structure of 4 the Moon and its internal resources. Exploiting lunar resources 5 might be one of the solutions to the Earth's energy shortage 6 in the future. In this paper, firstly, the thickness distribution of 7 the lunar regolith at the Chang'E-3 landing site is derived using 8 the high-frequency Yutu radar observation data. Secondly, the 9 surface concentration of helium-3 is determined based on the 10 surface TiO2 content of the lunar regolith. Finally, the reservoir 11 of helium-3 resources in the lunar regolith is estimated. Our 12 result suggests that the helium-3 reservoir along the Yutu rover 13 traveling route from the navigation points N105 to N208 (∼445 14 m 2 ) is ∼37-51 g, and its helium-3 content per unit area is 15 ∼0.083-0.114 g/m 2 , which is at least 5 times higher than that of 16 the global average. Currently, the nuclear fusion experiment is 17 facing a severe shortage of tritium fuel. We discuss the possibility 18 of replacing it with lunar helium-3 as the fuel for nuclear fusion. 19 Meanwhile, we also suggest that the Chang'E-3 landing area can 20 be a potential site selection for the exploitation of the lunar 21 helium-3 in the future. Our results will provide a valuable 22 reference to evaluate the economics and feasibility of mining 23 in-situ helium-3 resources on the Moon.

Radar Observation of the Lava Tubes on the Moon and Mars

“…The Moon-based GPR can achieve high-precision subsurface geological structure and regolith thickness detection and has a higher resolution than orbiting radar sounders [18,57]. Therefore, this technology is expected to become one of the essential tools for lava tube detection and exploration.…”

Optical Imaging Chain Modelling for the Permanent Shadowed Regions at Lunar South Poles

“…Some researchers provided photo-realistic images to model the visual environment on planetary surface, which focused on human perception instead of accurate physical modelling [26], [27]. Some radar-based simulation research for lunar exploration has also been conducted but the theory was different from optical remote sensing [28], [29].…”