Mini RF
The primary goal of the Mini-RF is to search for subsurface water ice deposits. In addition to taking high-resolution imagery of permanently-shadowed regions.
The Mini-RF project launched two radar instruments to the Moon. The first instrument launched on the Indian Space Research Organization’s Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. The second instrument currently is flying on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).
The primary goal of the Mini-RF is to search for subsurface water ice deposits. In addition to taking high-resolution imagery of permanently-shadowed regions.
This image shows four "faces" of Shackleton Crater, a 21 km diameter crater located at the south pole of the Moon. Because of its location, most of Shackleton's interior lies in permanent shadow. In the upper left, topography from the LOLA laser altimeter reveal the shape of the crater interior. The upper right image shows the visible lighting conditions in an image from the SMART-1 mission. The lower right image is a lighting map (brighter is longer periods of illumination) from the LRO Camera. The lower left image is a radar image from the Mini-RF instrument draped over a shaded relief map.
NASA/GSFC/ASU/JHUAPL/MIT/SwRI
