A Miniature Mineralogical Instrument for In-Situ Characterization of Ices and Hydrous Minerals at the Lunar Poles

Lunar missions over the past few years have provided new evidence that water may be present at the lunar poles in the form of cold-trapped ice deposits, thereby rekindling interest in sampling the polar regions. Robotic landers fitted with mineralogical instrumentation for in-situ analyses could pro...

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Main Authors: Blake, D., Collins, S. A., Sarrazin, P., Chipera, S., Bish, D., Vaniman, D.
Format: Other/Unknown Material
Language:unknown
Published: 2002
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20020074706
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spelling ftnasantrs:oai:casi.ntrs.nasa.gov:20020074706 2023-05-15T13:53:27+02:00 A Miniature Mineralogical Instrument for In-Situ Characterization of Ices and Hydrous Minerals at the Lunar Poles Blake, D. Collins, S. A. Sarrazin, P. Chipera, S. Bish, D. Vaniman, D. Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available 2002 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20020074706 unknown Document ID: 20020074706 http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20020074706 No Copyright CASI Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration The Moon Beyond 2002: Next Steps in Lunar Science and Exploration; 53; LPI-Contrib-1128 2002 ftnasantrs 2016-06-11T22:50:22Z Lunar missions over the past few years have provided new evidence that water may be present at the lunar poles in the form of cold-trapped ice deposits, thereby rekindling interest in sampling the polar regions. Robotic landers fitted with mineralogical instrumentation for in-situ analyses could provide unequivocal answers on the presence of crystalline water ice and/or hydrous minerals at the lunar poles. Data from Lunar Prospector suggest that any surface exploration of the lunar poles should include the capability to drill to depths of more than 40 cm. Limited data on the lunar geotherm indicate temperatures of approximately 245-255 K at regolith depths of 40 cm, within a range where water may exist in the liquid state as brine. A relevant terrestrial analog occurs in Antarctica, where the zeolite mineral chabazite has been found at the boundary between ice-free and ice-cemented regolith horizons, and precipitation from a regolith brine is indicated. Soluble halogens and sulfur in the lunar regolith could provide comparable brine chemistry in an analogous setting. Regolith samples collected by a drilling device could be readily analyzed by CheMin, a mineralogical instrument that combines X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) techniques to simultaneously characterize the chemical and mineralogical compositions of granular or powdered samples. CheMin can unambiguously determine not only the presence of hydrous alteration phases such as clays or zeolites, but it can also identify the structural variants or types of clay or zeolite present (e.g., well-ordered versus poorly ordered smectite; chabazite versus phillipsite). In addition, CheMin can readily measure the abundances of key elements that may occur in lunar minerals (Na, Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca, Fe) as well as the likely constituents of lunar brines (F, Cl, S). Finally, if coring and analysis are done during the lunar night or in permanent shadow, CheMin can provide information on the chemistry and structure of any crystalline ices that might occur in the regolith samples. Other/Unknown Material Antarc* Antarctica NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
institution Open Polar
collection NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
op_collection_id ftnasantrs
language unknown
topic Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration
spellingShingle Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration
Blake, D.
Collins, S. A.
Sarrazin, P.
Chipera, S.
Bish, D.
Vaniman, D.
A Miniature Mineralogical Instrument for In-Situ Characterization of Ices and Hydrous Minerals at the Lunar Poles
topic_facet Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration
description Lunar missions over the past few years have provided new evidence that water may be present at the lunar poles in the form of cold-trapped ice deposits, thereby rekindling interest in sampling the polar regions. Robotic landers fitted with mineralogical instrumentation for in-situ analyses could provide unequivocal answers on the presence of crystalline water ice and/or hydrous minerals at the lunar poles. Data from Lunar Prospector suggest that any surface exploration of the lunar poles should include the capability to drill to depths of more than 40 cm. Limited data on the lunar geotherm indicate temperatures of approximately 245-255 K at regolith depths of 40 cm, within a range where water may exist in the liquid state as brine. A relevant terrestrial analog occurs in Antarctica, where the zeolite mineral chabazite has been found at the boundary between ice-free and ice-cemented regolith horizons, and precipitation from a regolith brine is indicated. Soluble halogens and sulfur in the lunar regolith could provide comparable brine chemistry in an analogous setting. Regolith samples collected by a drilling device could be readily analyzed by CheMin, a mineralogical instrument that combines X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) techniques to simultaneously characterize the chemical and mineralogical compositions of granular or powdered samples. CheMin can unambiguously determine not only the presence of hydrous alteration phases such as clays or zeolites, but it can also identify the structural variants or types of clay or zeolite present (e.g., well-ordered versus poorly ordered smectite; chabazite versus phillipsite). In addition, CheMin can readily measure the abundances of key elements that may occur in lunar minerals (Na, Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca, Fe) as well as the likely constituents of lunar brines (F, Cl, S). Finally, if coring and analysis are done during the lunar night or in permanent shadow, CheMin can provide information on the chemistry and structure of any crystalline ices that might occur in the regolith samples.
format Other/Unknown Material
author Blake, D.
Collins, S. A.
Sarrazin, P.
Chipera, S.
Bish, D.
Vaniman, D.
author_facet Blake, D.
Collins, S. A.
Sarrazin, P.
Chipera, S.
Bish, D.
Vaniman, D.
author_sort Blake, D.
title A Miniature Mineralogical Instrument for In-Situ Characterization of Ices and Hydrous Minerals at the Lunar Poles
title_short A Miniature Mineralogical Instrument for In-Situ Characterization of Ices and Hydrous Minerals at the Lunar Poles
title_full A Miniature Mineralogical Instrument for In-Situ Characterization of Ices and Hydrous Minerals at the Lunar Poles
title_fullStr A Miniature Mineralogical Instrument for In-Situ Characterization of Ices and Hydrous Minerals at the Lunar Poles
title_full_unstemmed A Miniature Mineralogical Instrument for In-Situ Characterization of Ices and Hydrous Minerals at the Lunar Poles
title_sort miniature mineralogical instrument for in-situ characterization of ices and hydrous minerals at the lunar poles
publishDate 2002
url http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20020074706
op_coverage Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available
genre Antarc*
Antarctica
genre_facet Antarc*
Antarctica
op_source CASI
op_relation Document ID: 20020074706
http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20020074706
op_rights No Copyright
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