Planetary InSAR Summary

1. Planetary InSAR Summary Presented by Pete Mouginis-Mark pmm@higp.hawaii.edu

2. Overarching Science Goals • Search for Water (Mars, Moon, Europa) • Search for Active Tectonism/Volcanism (Venus, Europa). On Io, quantify on-going processes. • Improved Topography for geomorphology studies and landing sites characterization (Moon, Mars, Venus and Europa)

3. Moon: Investigate Polar Ices & Possible Landing Sites • Image permanent shadow areas at poles • Characterize topography at potential landing sites; meter-scale horizontal. • Polar topo. to determine lighting geometry; 10-m scale resolution • Global topography for crustal modeling; 50 – 75 m resolution. • Composition of ices via dielectric properties

4. Mars: Follow the Water & Climate Change • Does near-surface liquid water exist anywhere today? • Polar cap studies – surface motion, seasonal variability, rates of change of cap. • Ice sheet change detection (“swiss cheese”) • Tracking seasonal ice/water interface across globe as detected by Mars Odyssey. • Freeze/thaw seasonal variations (rock glaciers, crater gullies, polygons)

5. Surface changes at lower latitudes (e.g., dunes, landslides) • Topographic mapping at better than Mars Express resolution: landing site characterization, paleo-shorelines, paleo-climate geomorphology • Subsurface topography to search for buried drainage channels (search for paleo-rainfall?)

6. Europa: Potential Habitability of the moon • Radar sounding to determine thickness of icy crust – depth of brittle/ductile transition • Determine topography of potential penetrator landing sites

7. What is the Thickness of Europa’s Icy Crust? • Investigate strange “cycloid” ridges – may be formed from daily fracturing • Search for deformation along cracks to determine to see if brine is leaking to surface. One tidal cycle or longer time periods • What is role of large tidal amplitudes (~30 m) on 1.8-Earth day time period?

8. Ganymede/Callisto: Rheology of Icy Crusts • Need for high resolution topography to study relaxation of crater rims and fractured terrain

9. Venus: Is the Planet Still Active? • Identification of on-going tectonic and/or volcanic processes; comparison of geodetics with Earth. • Global topography with resolution (75 m) comparable to Magellan imaging for rheological modeling of slopes. • Atmospheric dynamics and structure? • Shallow subsurface structure (needs P-band) to resolve lithologic questions at landing sites (e.g., layering at Venera 14) • Resolution of origin of anomalous dielectric properties (e.g., Maat Mons)

10. Technology Development for all Planets • On-board processing for topographic recovery. Learn how to do this at Earth first to perfect data processing approach. Assume only 1 or 2 products with single-pass interferometry. • Penetration would require longer wavelengths. • Extended mission duration for seasonal studies on Mars. • SCAN-SAR best operating mode to repeatedly view large areas (e.g., on Venus). Would need on-board processing. • Spotlight imaging for selected sites for high resolution topography on Mars.

11. Galilean Satellite Technologies • Radiation hardening of spacecraft. • Data recovery on Earth more challenging due to Earth-Jupiter distance. • Challenging navigation of spacecraft for short duration mission. • If sub-surface ice needs to be characterized, need longer wavelength than P-band data. Do not how to do this at high power and voltage required for Jupiter mission.

12. Earth Analog Technology/Phenomenology Development • Develop on-board processing of InSAR data • Develop understanding of multi-wavelength volume scattering with radar penetration. Use of orbital or aircraft experiments OK • Characterize compositional effects on dielectric properties of materials.