Probing lunar dust on the way back to the Moon

[UM-Bot]

NASA is drawing up plans to probe the secrets of moon dust using a small orbiter that will ride piggyback on another spacecraft's rocket. The $80-million LADEE spacecraft is slated to launch alongside a lunar gravity-mapping probe in 2011 on a 100-day mission to study the moon's wisp-thin atmosphere and ever-present dust, the agency said Thursday.

View: Full Article | Source: Space.com

[Bella-Angelique]

Apr 28, 2004

Making new minerals on the Moon

Scientists in the US and Russia have discovered a new mineral in a rock from the Moon. The mineral - which they have called "hapkeite" - is made of iron and silicon, and was probably formed by the impact of micrometeorites on the lunar surface. The result sheds new light on how soil can be formed on airless bodies in the Solar System, like the Moon and Mercury (M Anand et al. 2004 Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 101 6847). source