Hubble Peaks at the Moon

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was used last week to observe sites on the lunar surface in a test of remote sensing of lunar resources, according to Maggie McKee, who writes for New Scientist magazine.

"We're trying to ascertain the potential of ultraviolet spectra for indicating lunar resources," says Bruce Hapke, a planetary scientist at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, US. He is one of a team of six researchers led by NASA's chief scientist, Jim Garvin, using Hubble to view the Moon.

In particular, the team hopes to be able to identify a mineral called ilmenite - or iron titanium oxide - which has previously been found in lunar soil samples. "It has properties which would be useful in constructing a lunar base," Hapke told New Scientist.

The article goes on to state the observations' relevance to NASA's exploration plans.

He adds that the time for the Hubble observations would probably not have been allocated were it not for US president George W Bush's "Vision for Space Exploration", which calls for returning people to the Moon by about 2018.