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Lunar Composition Examined By X-Ray

Posted by timothy on from the cheese-tumors dept.

whovian writes "Chandra, the x-ray observatory launched by NASA in 1999, is being used to study the composition of Earth's moon, perhaps putting an end to the age-old question, "Is the moon really made out of cheese?" 'Nuff said. The original press release is starting to get noticed here(1), here(2) and here(3). A neat idea, if you ask me, but will this postpone any manned lunar missions?"

6 of 23 comments (clear)

  1. postpone manned missions?! by m00by · · Score: 5, Informative

    good god man, they're not taking a huge honking X-ray of the moon, chandra uses the background X-ray radiation in the universe as it's "X-ray" and it focuses that into useful data. it's a passive x-ray, not an active scan :)

  2. Manned Mission Should only be used if Necessary by bhima · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Honestly I like the of space travel as much as anyone but manned missions should be limited to those which require people. Otherwise let unmanned missions send data. I wonder how pathfinder missions could performed instead of one failed shuttle mission. (Including the effects of bad press).

    But I'd rather see a space elevator than anything these days (short of a manned Mars Mission of course!)

    --
    Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
  3. Disappointed? by barakn · · Score: 3, Informative
    You may have noticed the extremely low resolution of the images produced by Chandra. In fact, other craft have gotten much better pictures of elemental compositions of the lunar surface, especially common elements like titanium and iron. For instance, Galileo returned this and Clementine (some very high res images here) returned this iron map and this titanium map.

    Chandra detected magnesium, silicon, aluminum, and oxygen, but its already known that the lunar highlands are composed mostly of anorthosite, a rock which contains all of those elements but magnesium (I would like to know why magnesium and not calcium was detected). This is more of a proof-of-concept than anything. The most important information to come from these first observations is the discounting of the anomolous farside x-ray emissions.

    --
    "I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
  4. Postponing Lunar Missions. by Dausha · · Score: 2, Funny

    but will this postpone any manned lunar missions? (Emphasis mine)

    Nope, the current X-Ray survey of the Lunar surface will not affect any of the Apollo Lunar missions. The last one was over thirty years ago.

    --
    What those who want activist courts fear is rule by the people.
  5. It won't postpone any manned lunar missions... by mraymer · · Score: 2, Insightful
    But, at least in the United States, lack of public interest and the cost will. I think space.com's article on why we need a space program was very insightful.

    I also think that this is one those times where my sig fits in nicely.

    --

    "To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking

  6. 2001... by Spudley · · Score: 2, Funny

    Okay, so they're doing this a couple of years later than Arthur C Clarke predicted, but the big question is: Did they find the monolinth yet?

    --
    (Spudley Strikes Again!)