22-EPN3-097: Characterising the Low-Temperature Spectral Properties of Lunar and Martian Analogues
Visit by Merve Yeşilbaş and Lucas Demaret of Umeå University (Sweden) to TA2.8 CSS (Cold Surfaces Spectroscopy) at IPAG (France).
Dates of visit: 23 October – 03 November 2023
Report Summary: Characterising the spectral properties of minerals and analogue materials under low-temperature vacuum environments enables a better understanding of how the spectral features of these materials would appear on the Moon and other planetary surfaces. This study involved measurement of reflectance spectra from 0.4 to 4.2 μm under low-temperature and vacuum conditions at the University of Grenoble Alpes CSS Facility of several analogue soils and minerals for the Moon and Mars. Samples investigated include enstatite, two lunar soil analogues, ferrihydrite, gypsum, and iron sulphates.
The experiments performed at the CSS revealed surprising changes in spectral features under
reduced temperature conditions for some samples. The band centres in spectra of the iron sulphate mineral szomolnokite shifted to longer wavelengths for some features as the temperature was decreased, and to shorter wavelengths for other features and remained the same for some features. We also documented changes in the hydration bands under vacuum and decreasing temperature conditions, which are important to understand for remote sensing on planetary surfaces. This short visit at the University of Grenoble Alpes supported by the Europlanet 2024 RI program is opening up a wide array of new collaborations with new experiments to understand the spectral properties of analogue minerals and soils for the Moon and Mars.
