Millimeter Wave Technology for Moon and Mars Exploration

The new vision for the moon exploration calls for a return to the moon in a series of missions that start with robotic. Many of the large-scale features, such as steep crater walls and large boulders, are insurmountable obstacles to the rover. Thus, the development of systems for the guidance of rovers is a crucial issue. In this paper a radio frequency (RF) multifunctional payload for the support of rover operations on the lunar surface is presented. Since the dimensions of Radio-Frequency devices is strictly correlated with the wavelength, the use of higher frequency allows to obtain payload with small dimensions. The instruments proposed in this paper operates in the W-band (75-110 GHz). After an introduction explaining the reasons that could make such a payload successful, the navigation requirements are evaluated on the basis of the expected rover characteristics. Then, the payload functional scheme is presented and its performance and physical features are shown.