<p>As humanity’s first sample return mission from the lunar farside, China’s Chang’E-6 mission provides a unique window into understanding the dichotomy in lunar nearside-farside evolution. Chang’E-6 landed in the southwestern Apollo basin (~2.79 Ga) within the South Pole–Aitken basin, providing a valuable record of early solar system impacts. Equipped with a Multi-Input-Multi-Output Lunar Regolith Penetrating Radar, the mission enabled the first detailed investigation of the shallow subsurface structure at the farside. By employing a tailored data processing approach, we obtained high-resolution subsurface images and revealed a distinct two-layer structure to a depth of 3 m. The upper layer (~1.7 m thick) consists of fine-grained, highly weathered regolith, while the lower layer (extending to 3 m) contains coarse, unweathered ejecta. Furthermore, by integrating data from Apollo and Chang’E missions, we identified a potential relationship between the lunar surface geological age and the shallow regolith’s electromagnetic losses. Specifically, geologically older regions exhibit lower electromagnetic attenuation, suggesting a possible link between regolith maturity and electromagnetic properties. These findings provide critical insights into the geological evolution of the Moon, and also offer unprecedented opportunities for correlating in-situ radar measurements with laboratory analyses of the farside samples, fundamentally advancing our understanding of lunar exploration.</p>

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Subsoil structure at the Chang’E-6 landing site revealed by in-situ Lunar Regolith Penetrating Radar

  • Zongyu Zhang,
  • Chunyu Ding,
  • Yan Su,
  • Shaoxiang Shen,
  • Wei Lu,
  • Francesco Soldovieri,
  • Zhiyong Xiao,
  • Xingguo Zeng,
  • Wei Du,
  • Yuhang Liu,
  • Changzhi Jiang,
  • Gianluca Gennarelli,
  • Ilaria Catapano,
  • Shun Dai,
  • Jianqing Feng,
  • Yichen Wang,
  • Jianjun Liu,
  • Chunlai Li

摘要

As humanity’s first sample return mission from the lunar farside, China’s Chang’E-6 mission provides a unique window into understanding the dichotomy in lunar nearside-farside evolution. Chang’E-6 landed in the southwestern Apollo basin (~2.79 Ga) within the South Pole–Aitken basin, providing a valuable record of early solar system impacts. Equipped with a Multi-Input-Multi-Output Lunar Regolith Penetrating Radar, the mission enabled the first detailed investigation of the shallow subsurface structure at the farside. By employing a tailored data processing approach, we obtained high-resolution subsurface images and revealed a distinct two-layer structure to a depth of 3 m. The upper layer (~1.7 m thick) consists of fine-grained, highly weathered regolith, while the lower layer (extending to 3 m) contains coarse, unweathered ejecta. Furthermore, by integrating data from Apollo and Chang’E missions, we identified a potential relationship between the lunar surface geological age and the shallow regolith’s electromagnetic losses. Specifically, geologically older regions exhibit lower electromagnetic attenuation, suggesting a possible link between regolith maturity and electromagnetic properties. These findings provide critical insights into the geological evolution of the Moon, and also offer unprecedented opportunities for correlating in-situ radar measurements with laboratory analyses of the farside samples, fundamentally advancing our understanding of lunar exploration.