Chandrayaan M3 Instrument Confirms Iron-Bearing Minerals On the Moon

William Robinson writes with news that the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), an instrument developed by NASA and sent aboard India's Chandrayaan-1, has confirmed the presence of iron-bearing minerals on the moon. This marks the beginning of an extensive examination of the composition of the lunar surface. "Isro officials said M3 would help in characterising and mapping lunar minerals to ultimately understand the moon's early geological evolution. 'The compositional map that will come out of M3 will have fantastic data on geological formation of the moon,' the official said. Researchers said the relative abundance of magnesium and iron in lunar rocks could help confirm whether the moon was covered by a molten, magma ocean early on in its history. Iron and magnesium will also indicate melting of the moon, if it happened and how it formed later. This metallic element has been found in lunar meteorites, but scientists know little about its distribution in the lunar crust."

Comments

Re:WTF?????

[DerekLyons]

All of the manned missions to the Moon took place in a relatively small area on the near-side. As far as I can tell from the press spiel in the link, M3's mission is to survey the entire surface of the Moon.

All of the manned landing missions surveyed only a small area of the surface, true. But people often forget that the missions included a manned orbiting component - a component that conducted an extensive survey of the entire lunar surface. They carried magnetometers, photographic survey cameras, and a variety of other sensors. Analysis of their trajectory gave information on the gravitational field. (In addition to the variety of unmanned probes flown.)
 
 

At present there is very little data of any sort regarding the far-side of the Moon. Information on the magnetic and gravitational fields is of particular interest because of its importance for orbital prediction, determination, and manipulation.

Except for the detailed information of a few sites on the front side due to landers (manned and unmanned) - we know just as much about the backside as the front, as it was overflown by the same unmanned probes and manned missions.