| PAYDIRT! |
| The soil of the Moon, called lunar regolith by scientists and Moondust by others, is a rich source of metals and oxygen that can easily be strip mined. Oxygen can be used for rocket propellant and breathing, silicon for solar panels, iron for construction, calcium for cement, aluminum and magnesium for vehicles, titanium can replace steel, chromium and manganese for alloys, sodium for caustic, potassium and nitrogen for agriculture, sulfur for acid and farming, carbon and hydrogen for water and chemicals, and helium 3 for fusion energy. |
| Plain regolith, Moondust, can be melted in solar furnaces and cast into forms to make ceramic items. Glass, cement and concrete can be derived from Moondust. |
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| Speculation: What lieth beneath the Moon? Regolith means lunar soil, a powdery mixture of minerals formed by eons of meteoric bombardment and pulverization of lunar rocks. The regolith of the mare, or "seas," of the Moon is not as deep as the highland regolith. The regolith consists mostly of ilmenite FeTiO3, plagioclase (Na,Ca)Al2Si2O8, olivine (Fe,Mg)SiO4, and pyroxene (Ca,Fe,Mg)Si2O6 and some minor minerals. The hardened lava of the mare welled up in ancient times from the mantle of the Moon. Could there be layers of heavy chromite, FeCr2O4, that sinks in lavas, deep in these basaltic seas? Could we someday dig deep shafts and mine chromium? Or could we find it more easily in crater central peaks where mantle up thrusts from deep within the Moon seem to have occured? These could contain ferromagnesium suite minerals (olivine, pyroxene) typical of the mantle and also chromite which is a mantle component. Chromium, up to 10%, is used for stainless steel. Corrosion may not be a problem in the vacuum, but within habitats it could be. More conjecturally, chromium doped into aluminum oxide makes rubies. Could we make artificial ruby rods of great size in the free vacuum and low G of the Moon or even weightless space for lasers at the heart of fusion reactors and anti-missile defenses in space someday? Also pegmatites that often contain Be, Li and Ni are found in granites. Granite is hardened lava that is mostly plagioclase. Could we find these also? Beryllium is a very valuble metal. Since the mare consist mostly of olivine and pyroxene we won't find them there, but beneath the highland regolith which consists mostly of pulverized plagioclase there is hardened plagioclase which forms most of the lunar crust. The lighter plagioclase floated above the denser ferromagnesian minerals of the mantle when the Moon was molten to form the crust. This hardened plagioclase beneath the highland regolith should be similar to Earthly granite and it might contain pegmatites bearing useful metals. We don't know if there are pegmatites or chromite beneath the Moon, but these form in Earthly lavas. We need to drill into the hardened magma bedrock of the Moon. Gamma ray sensors with radioisotope neutron sources could be lowered into boreholes and tell us what's there. Also of interest, are meteor impacts like the one at Sudbury, Ontario, that are rich in iron, nickel, cobalt, copper and platinum group metals, present on the Moon? Geologists at Sudbury say that the valuable metals at Sudbury did not come from the impactor but welled up from deep within the Earth. If this is so, why don't more volcanic upwellings contain rich ores of nickel, cobalt, copper and PGMs? Until we go to the Moon and study more impact craters to determine whether or not they are rich in these metals we cannot be certain. Let's hope the geologists are wrong and the valuable metals at Sudbury did come from the giant meteorite and that similar craters exist on the Moon, because nickel and copper are present only in traces in the regolith and we could use these metals for lunar industry somedy. |
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| Oxygen 40% Silicon 20% Iron 12% Calcium 8.5% Aluminum 7.3% Magnesium 4.8% Titanium 4.5% Sodium 0.33% Chromium 0.2% Manganese 0.16% Potassium 0.11% Sulfur 540 ppm Carbon 200 ppm Nitrogen 100 ppm Hydrogen 40 ppm Helium 4 28ppm Helium 3 0.01 ppm Since about 100 million tons of regolith must be heated to about 1400 deg. F to get one ton of helium 3; 4000 tons of hydrogen; 2800 tons of helium 4; 10,000 tons of nitrogen; 20,000 tons of carbon and 54,000 tons of sulfur will also be obtained. |
| Terminology albedo: Reflectivity of a body. The Moon reflects 7% of the light falling on it. Darkest asteroids have albedos of 1-3%; as dark as coal. alumina: aluminum oixide (Al2O3) anorthosite: rock composed of more than 90% calcic plagioclase with pyroxene and olivine as minor constituents apatite: phosphate mineral basalt: hardened extruded lava central peak: mountain in center of crater formed by rebound after impact; composed of material from deep below the bedrock. extrusion: lava flooded onto surface; extrusive rocks form when lava hardens on the surface gabbro: subterranean version of basalt granite: deep igneous (plutonic) rock; 60% K-feldspar, 30% quartz; extruded granite is called rhyolite ilmenite: FeTiO3 intrusive rock: rocks that form when magma hardens beneath the surface KREEP: mineral rich in K (potassium), REE (rare earth elements including uranium and thorium), and P (phosphorus mafic: denser minerals like olivine and pyroxene formed deep that are enriched in iron and titanium with less silicon and aluminum megaregolith: outer few km. of ancient anorthositic lunar crust norite: plutonic rock composed of plagioclase feldspar and pyroxene olivine: magnesium-iron silicate (Mg,Fe)SiO4 plagioclase feldspar: (Ca,Na)(Al,Si)4O8. Much terran plagioclase contains Na while the Moon, deficient in sodium, has mostly calcic plagioclase. pyroxene: (Ca,Fe,Mg)2Si2O6 quartz: silica mineral common on Earth but rare on the Moon rare earth elements: lanthanum, cerium, neodymium, praseodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, erbium, thulium, dysprosium, holmium, ytterbium and lutetium refractory elements: high boiling point elements like Al, Ca, Mg and Ti; most volatile elements have been lost from the Moon regolith: lunar "soil" siderophile elements: "iron loving" elements-sodium, zinc, germanium, arsenic, selenium, bromine, silver, cadmium, indium, antimony, tellurium, rhenium, osmium, iridium, gold, thallium, nickel, bismuth and tin. These combine with iron and tend to follow iron in igneous processes. The Moon does not seem to have a large iron core but its regolith is enriched in these elements due to bombardment by iron-nickel meteorites. The planet Mercury has a very large iron core and relatively thin mantle and crust, thus Mercury and iron-nickel asteroids could supply vast quantities of siderophile elements to space civilization in the future. silica: silicon dioxide (SiO2) silicate: minerals based on SiO4 (the silicon tetrahedron); most common type of mineral; lightweight silica rises in the mantle and combines with Ca, Al, Fe, Mg, Na and K to make large variety of minerals. troctolite: plutonic rock composed of plagioclase feldspar and olivine volatile elements: low boiling point elements like sulfur and chlorine xenolith: "strange rock," piece of rock from deep within crust torn off wall of magma feed pipe and brought to surface; very rare and prized for insight they yield about the lower crust |
| Suggested reading: Exploring the Moon by David Harland Praxis Publishing:1999 (data above derived from this book) Rocks and Minerals by Herbert S. Zim and Paul Shaffer Golden Press:1957 |
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| see: http://www.astro.lsa.umich.edu/~cowley/lecture14/ |
| data below from: http://www.sps.aero/Key_ComSpace_Articles/LibTech/LIB-006_Lunar_Materials_Utilization.pdf |
| Highland Regolith element Wt. % oxygen 44.6 silicon 21 aluminum 13.3 calcium 10.7 iron 4.87 magnesium 4.55 sodium 0.31 titanium 0.31 chromium 0.085 potassium 0.08 manganese 0.0675 phosphorus 0.05 |
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| Mare Regolith element Wt.% oxygen 41.7 silicon 21.2 iron 13.2 calcium 7.88 aluminum 6.97 Magnesium 5.76 titanium 3.1 sodium 0.29 chromium 0.26 manganese 0.17 potassium 0.11 phosphorus 0.066 |
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