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Hubble Zooms In On Moon Minerals

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the do-you-see-what-i-see dept.

DIY News writes "Lunar scientists have already returned to the moon, using the Hubble Space Telescope and old Apollo Program rock samples to begin prospecting for useful ores. Locating ores rich in oxygen and metals is seen as the first step in making the next decade's human return to the moon more self sufficient and cost effective. Some wavelengths of UV are filtered out by Earth's atmosphere, which is why Hubble can do the job better than a ground-based telescope."

11 of 191 comments (clear)

  1. Hollywood basement ? by bushboy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So how about a hires shot of the flag and footprints so we can all say "I TOLD YOU SO !"

    --
    A slashdotting - you get the stick first and then the carrot !
    1. Re:Hollywood basement ? by Mente · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Actually, this is incorrect. Not the math, just the application. For example, a 1 meter resolution image such as the ones on GoogleMaps can see lines painted in a parking lot. But the lines are't 1 meter wide. Not even close. However, the level of contrast between that line and the surroundings are enough for the lines to appear on the image.

      Given enough contrast with its surroundings, an object could be as small at 4 meters wide and still be visible at .0072 arc-seconds resolution. However, given the fairly neutral grey background of the moon, it is highly unlikely that something left behind would shift the contrast balance enough to color the pixel.

  2. Thank goodness by no+reason+to+be+here · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I sure am glad that such a waste of valuable resources like the Hubble is going to be scrapped soon. The sooner we stop doing such useless things with it like valuable research that will directly result in more efficient space travel, the better.

    --
    my pet machine
  3. Try This by EasyComputer · · Score: 1, Interesting
    Instead of trying to extract raw materials from the moon directly they could try re-engineering some bacteria to live off the stuff actually easily available on the moon and have them excrete some O2, H20 as waste products.

    They could then create enclosed areas for harvesting the by-products, might be cheaper. Any Ideas?

  4. Zoom by mboverload · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I wasn't aware Hubble could focus to so close of an object. Anyone have details about this?

  5. Re:A little OT but... by DougWebb · · Score: 2, Interesting

    When/if oil (and coal, and natural gas) get too expensive, we'll shift our electricity generation away from those fuels and towards nuclear. Between direct use of electricty, and the generation of hydrogen for a portable fuel source, we can do/build everything we need.

    Of course, these commodities aren't just used as fuels; oil provides lubrication, plastics, and lots of other refined products. Most of those can be obtained through recycling though, especially if there is plenty of electricty. Also, when the reserves got low, we'd stop using the stuff as fuel and conserve what's left for these other uses.

  6. I remember... by Anonym1ty · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What happened? I remember when we were told that aiming Hubble at the Moon or the Earth would destroy it's sensitive instruments.

    --
    See the Pictures of the Flood of '08
    1. Re:I remember... by faxafloi · · Score: 2, Interesting

      What happened? I remember when we were told that aiming Hubble at the Moon or the Earth would destroy it's sensitive instruments.

      Hubble can do short images of the moon with no problem, aside from the challenge of guiding. It does images of the earth all the time. These are called earth calibrations and they serve as the basis of flat fields with which HST images are calibrated. You can't see anything in them, though, because the earth is too close to focus on, and the telescope is moving at ~300 miles/min, so the images are just blurry streaks across cloud tops. That's why they make good flat fields.

      Not long after launch, HST did some "imaging" of the sun. The idea was to point the telescope 180 degrees away from the sun while using a small backwards-pointing light collector on the original WF/PC to pre-flood the CCD with solar ultraviolet. It never got used , though. HST Proposal 1478: WF/PC UV FLOOD GUIDING TECHNIQUE VERIFICATION, if you're interested. Here's an example image.

      So the only major solar system object that HST has never imaged-besides the objects we don't know about-is Mercury. It's too close to the sun. The aperture door will close if we try to point there.

      --
      Exit, pursued by a bear.
  7. Key points from the actual article by Scott7477 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "The latest lunar prospecting first required aiming Hubble at Apollo landing sites and looking with special filters that showed only subtle UV signatures reflected by soils there.
    By then comparing the Hubble data to actual laboratory-studied samples that astronauts brought back from the same sites, they were able to get a clear idea just how these same minerals look through Hubble's eye. The Hubble Space Telescope can discriminate very subtle color differences on the surface," said planetary scientist Mark Robinson of Northwestern University. So subtle that Hubble can see mineralogical differences in rocks that look identical in color to the human eye, he said."

    So the Hubble can in fact discern with a usable degree of precision....

    "At Aristarchus, Hubble detected what appeared to be an abundance of the mineral ilmenite, which is good news, said NASA lunar scientist Michael Wargo. By heating or passing an electrical current through ilmenite, it's a simple matter to release oxygen, which can be used for breathing and for rocket fuel, he explained."

    It will be easy to extract at least one useful element....

    Ahhh...I'll just include the rest of the article.

    "In some ways the Hubble prospecting is just the bare beginning of the next phase of lunar exploration, said Garvin. The next step will be taken by the robotic Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is being built to map out the moon's resources in details.

    A second lunar probe is also being planned, all before the planned return of humans to the moon by about 2018, as directed by President George W. Bush's vision for humans in space.

    In a sense, said Robinson, the Hubble prospecting experiment is giving scientists the first taste of how to interpret the deluge of lunar data that will be coming from those spacecraft.

    "It will be a Niagara Falls of data," he said. "This is really going to jump start our ability to understand this data.""

    So this Hubble use is part of what seems to me to be a sound plan for preparing to build a base on the moon.

    --
    "Lack of technical competence coupled with the arrogance of power, as usual, leads to no good end."
  8. He3 is the key by Dollyknot · · Score: 2, Interesting
    There is something worth $40000 an ounce on the moon, read about it here.

    http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/gallery/

    and here

    http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/1283 056.html?page=1&c=y/

    --
    It's called an elephant's trunk whereas it is in fact, an elephant's nose, a nose by any other name would smell as sweet
  9. Why... by QJimbo · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Why in gods name isn't there a lunar orbiter satellite? Surely it would cost too much to set one up, and we could get some really hi-res images of the surface, I mean we really should have better quality ones by now.