PEDALS: Passively Expanding Dipole Array for Lunar Sounding Archives

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PEDALS: A Better Method for Determining the Composition of Subsurface Lunar Regolith

PEDALS is delivered to or near the surface by a lander or orbiter, can survive moderate impacts if needed (to be traded), unrolls passively using shape memory materials on the surface, and later, probes the subsurface by combining and coupling unique permutations of short-length dipoles. (Credits: Patrick McGarey)

NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase I Award
Funding: up to $125,000
Study Period: 9 months

PEDALS: Passively Expanding Dipole Array for Lunar Sounding
Patrick McGarey
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, Calif.

Knowledge of the subsurface composition and structure of terrestrial planets is key to unveiling their geologic history, including crustal differentiation, volcanism, sedimentation, basin formation, and volatile transport and accumulation.

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