Mineral Mapping of FeO and TiO_2 of the Cassini crater using Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) of Chandrayaan - 1

摘要

An essential aspect of space exploration is the study of the geological makeup of any interplanetary body and the Moon has been a source of great fascination for scientific researchers in this field. Lunar surface mineralogy provides significant shreds of evidence for interpreting the composition and evolution of the planet's crust. Spectral changes due to perpetuated exposure of the planetary surface to the space environment could be quantified using geological remote sensing. These optical properties depend on relative rates of surface modification processes. Assessment of the measure of lunar soil evolution may be denoted in terms of Optical Maturity (OMAT). Optical maturity parameter is an indicator of the maturity of lunar regolith and hence, its estimation is of great importance in studying the geological characterization of the lunar surface. Also, lunar mineral exploitation may be of significant importance in the near future. Synergetic use of spectral reflectance of lunar surface acquired by Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), onboard Chandrayaan - 1, with a hypothetically hyper matured optimized end member of the data, along with the standard weight percentages of FeO and Ti02 from lunar returned samples of Apollo and Luna landing sites, has been carried out using remote sensing based data interpolation techniques. The present work focusses on quantifying elemental concentration for characterizing lunar soil using hyperspectral data for Cassini crater, located at the eastern end of Mare Imbrium. Using local mosaic of M3 hyperspectral data and recalibrated element derivation algorithms, local modal abundance of FeO and Ti02 is found to be 6.88 wt% and 3.59 wt% respectively. The overall results establish that the crater is highly matured with a local modal maturity index of 0.064.