GEMx Mission: Using NASA Aircraft to Prospect for Strategic Mineral Deposits in the USA

Sunday - November 12 2023, 13:17 UTC - 1 year ago

NASA is using modified U-2 spy planes and Gulfstream V business jets over deserts and arid areas of the US, equipped with advanced hyperspectral imaging sensors to try and find vital strategic mineral deposits for national security. With their success, the US could reduce dependence on foreign sources of these minerals.

NASA has started using its version of the Lockheed U-2 spy plane to prospect for mineral resources in and around America's deserts. Called the Earth Resources 2 (ER-2), the modified U2 had been hunting for vital strategic mineral deposits that could be used to build electronics. The Geological Earth Mapping Experiment (GEMx) mission has been underway since September of this year in collaboration with the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

High-altitude prospecting .

"The U.S. depends on a reliable supply of Earth materials to support its economy and national security," said USGS geophysicist Raymond Kokaly in a NASA statement. "Such materials have been deemed critical minerals because disruption of their supply would have significant negative impacts. Undiscovered deposits of at least some of these critical and strategic minerals almost certainly exist in the United States. Still, modern geophysical data is needed to increase our knowledge of these resources," he added.

As it stands, China dominates the market for some key resources like cobalt, lithium, rare earths, and other critical minerals in terms of processing and refining, according to a White House fact sheet published in 2022. This is where, in part, NASA's and USGS' GEMx mission will prove pivotal in helping the United States reduce its dependence on potentially hostile suppliers of these materials, like China. Providing, of course, the mission finds any viable sources in the target areas.

The GEMx mission involves using NASA's ER-2 and one of NASA's modified Gulfstream V business jets to fly over the arid regions of the American Southwest, including California, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. During the mission, the ER-2 will be flying at altitudes of 65,000 feet (19,800 m), equipped with special sensors that collect what are known as hyperspectral images.

"For this mission, we are flying at approximately 65,000 feet to acquire wide swaths of geophysical data with every overflight," said Kevin Reath, NASA deputy program manager for GEMx. The instruments are flying higher than previous airborne instruments to collect data over a wider area, yet the images collected have finer detail than a satellite view. "It’s thanks to this high-altitude flying capability that we can cover such a large area," Reath said."If this mission can successfully identify critical minerals in minable locations in the U.S., we could be less dependent on foreign entities for these critical minerals," he added.

For the task at hand, NASA has mounted various sensors on the ER-2 and Gulfstream V. These include NASA's AVIRIS (Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer), HyTES (Hyperspectral Thermal Emission Spectrometer), and MASTER (MODIS/ASTER Airborne Simulator). As NASA explains, optical sensors on these instruments capture hyperspectral images, which reveal the hidden complexities of seemingly uniform or monochromatic surfaces through the use of color. These visual data sets help identify the composition and alterations of the Earth's surface and atmosphere.

National resource security .

The Biden-Harrison administration has identified the potential of minerals located within the United States that could be used for national security purposes. As with the rest of the world, mining on American soil is fraught with economic, environmental, and social implications. Ultimately, the GEMx mission could prove key to determining whether or not there are viable sources of mineral resources within the country and if there is anything tangible to be done that will enhance the security of our national sources of these minerals.