Multiobjective Optimization of Radar Acquisition Parameters in Flyby Scenarios of Planetary Missions

In planetary explorations, missions that employ flybys operate in strongly variable environments. The rapid change in altitude of a flyby orbit increases the difficulties in determining the optimal instrument parameters to properly study the investigated celestial body. Typically, the selection of the parameters is guided by multiple criteria according to the mission’s scientific objectives and the available resources. In this letter, we propose a novel automatic strategy to find the optimal instrument configuration exploiting a multiobjective optimization. The problem is addressed as the minimization of an objective function, which evaluates the acquisition properties. Thus, the solutions represent the best trade-offs between system performance and resource consumption. We tested our approach on a monostatic radar sounder (RS) capable of penetrating and analyzing the celestial bodies’ subsurface. In particular, we considered the Radar for Icy Moon Exploration (RIME) on board the JUpiter Icy moons Explorer (JUICE) that will study the Jovian moons: Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Several planning simulations have been conducted, considering numerous flybys on the three moons while adopting signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), data rate, and orbit uncertainty as objectives. Results confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed approach, reaching a surface SNR of 60 dB with a data rate of 9 Mb/s for the 7E1 flyby on Europa.