Radar, as a standard payload in deep-space exploration missions, plays a pivotal role in the reconnaissance of Mars and other planetary bodies. At present, radar technology is chiefly deployed on planetary orbiters, landers, and rovers to investigate surface and subsurface structures. By transmitting electromagnetic waves and analyzing the echoes reflected/scattered by the targets, it enables the investigation of both surface and subsurface structures. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) represent a novel approach to planetary exploration. Compared with orbiters, landers, and rovers carrying radar instruments, a UAV-borne penetrating radar offers improvedsuperior maneuverability, flexiblebroader coverage, and markedly higher spatial resolution for near-surface investigations on Mars. This paper reviews operational examples from China’s Tianwen-1 mission and its Zhurong rover, as well as NASA’s Perseverance rover and Ingenuity UAV, discussingexamining how radar systems fromon different platforms can be integrated for a multi-scale, multi-resolution diagnostics. A comparative analysis of detection capabilities and technical characteristics is presented, followed by an assessment of the feasibility of using penetrating radar with UAV platforms for future deep-space exploration. Finally, the paper outlines the prospective development trajectory for future UAV-borne penetrating radar in Martian exploration., and introduces a compact frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar prototype developed by our laboratory as a proof-of-concept system.
Wu et al. (2026) studied this question.