Modeling Bictatic Radio Sounding of the Lunar Soil

In 1994, the bistatic radar sounding of the Moon was carried out from the Clementine spacecraft. Analysis of the measurement results showed that the intensity and polarization of the radio echo in a small region at the South Pole differed from the values typical of ordinary lunar soil, but were similar to those obtained from radar surveys of Greenland ice and Jupiter satellites. Thus, an assumption was made about the existence of water ice deposits in the lunar soil, which until now could neither be confirmed nor disproved. In 2023, the launch of the Russian Luna 26 orbiter is planned, on which a radar complex will be installed to conduct radar sounding of the Moon on megahertz waves. The main problem of bistatic observation of the Moon is the difficulty of determining the area that is involved in the formation of the reflected signal. Here we discuss the method of localizing the place of reflection of radio signals using the known ballistic parameters of a spacecraft and numerical simulation.