Geologists have used the Hubble Space Telescope to study minerals on the moon. It might be one small step for them, but it鈥檚 a giant leap towards building a lunar outpost.
Space scientists are keen to map the concentration of the titanium-dioxide-rich mineral ilmenite on the moon鈥檚 surface, says Jim Garvin of NASA鈥檚 Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. 鈥淥xygen production from TiO2-enhanced lunar soils could potentially make breathable oxygen and even oxidiser for rocket fuel.鈥�
UV images of the lunar surface show patterns that correlate with the concentration of TiO2 measured in lunar samples collected by the Apollo missions, and so a map of the UV variations can be used to create a map of TiO2 abundance. However, Earth鈥檚 atmosphere interferes with UV readings, so the team used Hubble to take UV images of a small area of the lunar surface that included the landing sites of the Apollo 15 and 17 spacecraft.
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When the team compared the UV data with the TiO2 levels from the Apollo sampled, they found that low-lying basaltic soil has 6 to 8 per cent TiO2 by weight, while the highland soils contain only 2 per cent . 鈥淥ur well-calibrated UV images will act as a pathfinder for mapping by NASA鈥檚 2008 Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter,鈥� says Garvin.
