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High-Grading Lunar SamplesAstronauts on long-duration lunar missions will need the capability to high-grade their samples to select the highest value samples for transport to Earth and to leave others on the Moon. We are supporting studies to define the necessary and sufficient measurements and techniques for high-grading samples at a lunar outpost. A glovebox, dedicated to testing instruments and techniques for high-grading samples, is in operation at the JSC Lunar Experiment Laboratory. A reference suite of lunar rocks and soils, spanning the full compositional range found in the Apollo collection, is available for testing in this laboratory. Thin sections of these samples are available for direct comparison. The Lunar Sample Compendium, on-line at http://www-curator.jsc.nasa.gov/lunar/compendium.cfm, summarizes previous analyses of these samples. The laboratory, sample suite, and Compendium are available to the lunar research and exploration community. In the first test of possible instruments for lunar sample high-grading, we imaged 18 lunar rocks and four soils from the reference suite using the Multispectral Microscopic Imager (MMI) developed by Arizona State University and JPL (see Farmer et. al. abstract). The MMI is a fixed-focus digital imaging system with a resolution of 62.5 microns/pixel, a field size of 40 x 32 mm, and a depth-of-field of approximately 5 mm. Samples are illuminated sequentially by 21 light emitting diodes in discrete wavelengths spanning the visible to shortwave infrared. Measurements of reflectance standards and background allow calibration to absolute reflectance. ENVI-based software is used to produce spectra for specific minerals as well as multi-spectral images of rock textures.
Document ID
20090023411
Acquisition Source
Johnson Space Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Allen, Carlton
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Sellar, Glenn
(Arizona State Univ. Tempe, AZ, United States)
Nunez, Jorge
(Arizona State Univ. Tempe, AZ, United States)
Mosie, Andrea
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Schwarz, Carol
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Parker, Terry
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Winterhalter, Daniel
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Farmer, Jack
(Arizona State Univ. Tempe, AZ, United States)
Date Acquired
August 24, 2013
Publication Date
July 21, 2009
Subject Category
Geophysics
Report/Patent Number
JSC-CN-18453
Meeting Information
Meeting: Lunar Science Forum
Location: Moffett Field, CA
Country: United States
Start Date: July 21, 2009
End Date: July 23, 2009
Sponsors: NASA Ames Research Center
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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