NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have joined forces in a groundbreaking initiative to map critical minerals in the American West. With the help of airborne sensors developed for space missions, scientists are now exploring the vast landscape of North America to uncover vital resources essential for modern technology and national security. This new project, known as the Geological Earth Mapping Experiment (GEMx), uses cutting-edge technology to scan the Earth in ways never before possible. It is not just an effort to track minerals; it is a mission that could change how the U.S. sources crucial materials like lithium and rare earth elements.
By leveraging technology originally created for space exploration, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and USGS are offering a new perspective on the Earth’s mineral deposits. This effort is vital as the U.S. continues to seek ways to reduce its reliance on imported minerals, which are crucial for manufacturing everyday products, such as smartphones, medical devices, and electric vehicle batteries. With a long-standing history of collaboration dating back to the Apollo missions, NASA and the USGS continue to innovate, building on decades of expertise to address some of the most pressing challenges facing the nation.
Mapping Nevada’s Mars Look-Alike: A Testbed for Space Technology
In the harsh, arid terrain of Cuprite, Nevada, NASA has found a place that mirrors the surface of other planets, such as Mars. This desolate land has been a testing ground for NASA’s most advanced sensors for over 100 years. “Sensors that discovered lunar water, charted Saturn’s moons, even investigated ground zero in New York City were all tested and calibrated at Cuprite,” said Robert Green, a senior research scientist at NASA’s JPL in Southern California. The striking similarity between the mineral-rich hills of Cuprite and Mars has made it an ideal location to fine-tune instruments that will one day explore the Red Planet.
For over three decades, NASA has been developing and refining the technology that can analyze minerals on rocky surfaces, first for space exploration and now for Earth-based applications. Cuprite’s minerals, including gypsum, mica, and alunite, appear to the human eye as plain as the dry landscape, but through NASA’s advanced sensors, they reveal hidden complexities that could be vital for future technological advancements. Cuprite, as a natural laboratory, offers researchers a way to test and validate instruments that will be crucial for future missions to other planets.
The Power of Airborne Sensors: Mapping from 60,000 Feet
The critical minerals being sought after, including lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements, are essential for everything from electric vehicle batteries to medical devices. To locate these minerals, NASA’s sensors are flying at an altitude of 60,000 feet (18,200 meters) – well above the cruising altitude of commercial aircraft. These airborne spectrometers can capture a detailed image of the Earth’s mineral composition by reading light patterns that human eyes cannot detect. This level of detail is crucial for identifying mineral deposits in vast, hard-to-reach areas of North America.
NASA’s involvement in this mission is rooted in its experience with imaging spectroscopy. The AVIRIS-Classic, an advanced sensor, uses imaging spectroscopy to detect the light wavelengths reflected by various molecules. “One of the cool things about NASA is that we develop technology to look out at the solar system and beyond, but we also turn around and look back down,” said Ben Phillips, a longtime NASA program manager who led GEMx until his retirement in 2025. This innovative technology allows scientists to pinpoint mineral deposits from a distance and in unprecedented detail.
AVIRIS-Classic and AVIRIS-5: Cutting-Edge Technology for Mineral Mapping
At the heart of the GEMx initiative is a technology known as imaging spectroscopy, which NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been developing since the 1980s. This technology works by detecting the unique light signatures of molecules – a kind of fingerprint – enabling scientists to identify specific minerals from the sky. The core instrument for this mapping effort is the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS). The AVIRIS-Classic has been in service for over 30 years, but now its successor, the AVIRIS-5, is taking over.
The AVIRIS-5 is an advanced tool capable of zooming in on areas as small as one foot across, providing ten times the resolution of its predecessor. This upgraded technology promises to offer sharper images and more precise data, further enhancing NASA’s ability to map the critical minerals needed by the U.S. industry. The integration of both AVIRIS-Classic and AVIRIS-5 sensors aboard NASA’s high-altitude ER-2 aircraft ensures that scientists can gather data from vast swaths of land, helping identify new mineral deposits across the American West. “The newest generation of AVIRIS will more than live up to the original,” Green said, highlighting the power and precision of this next-generation technology.
GEMx: A Partnership with Deep Roots in Space Exploration
The collaboration between NASA and the USGS is a continuation of a long history of joint efforts. This partnership goes all the way back to the Apollo missions, where USGS geologists helped NASA create maps of the Moon to find safe landing spots for astronauts. This historical collaboration laid the groundwork for the training of astronauts and scientists working on the Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the Moon.
Today, this collaboration is more relevant than ever, with both agencies working together to address Earth’s resource challenges. The GEMx project combines USGS’s expertise in geological fieldwork with NASA’s groundbreaking sensor technology, allowing them to identify mineral deposits in areas previously inaccessible to conventional mapping techniques. On the ground, USGS scientists, led by geophysicist Todd Hoefen, collect mineral samples that are then compared with the data captured from the air, validating the accuracy of the airborne sensors.