HR: 17:15h
AN: P44A-06    [Abstracts]
TI: The Uppermost Surface of the Moon: A Study of the Ap16 Clam Shell Samples
AU: * Noble, S K
EM: sarah.k.noble@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Johnson Space Center, Mail Code KR 2101 NASA Parkway, Houston, TX 77058, United States
AU: Keller, L P
EM: lindsay.p.keller@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Johnson Space Center, Mail Code KR 2101 NASA Parkway, Houston, TX 77058, United States
AU: Pieters, C M
EM: Carle_Pieters@brown.edu
AF: Brown University, 324 Brook Street Box 1846, Providence, RI 02912, United States
AB: The Apollo 16 Clam Shell Sampling Devices (CSSDs) sampled the uppermost surface of the lunar soil. The two devices used beta cloth (69003) and velvet (69004) to collect soil from the uppermost 100 μm and 500 μm of the soil, respectively. Although very little material was collected, recent advances in instrumentation and sample preparation techniques allow for detailed analysis of these precious samples thirty years after their collection. Understanding the properties of the uppermost surface is critical as it is the optical surface that is probed by remote-sensing data, like that which will be generated by instruments on upcoming missions (e.g. M3). The uppermost material is also the surface with which future lunar astronauts and their equipment will be in direct contact, and thus understanding its properties will be important for dust mitigation and toxicology issues, as well as resource utilization (ISRU) purposes. In combination with traditional skim (69921) and scoop (69941) samples (sampling to depths of roughly 0.5 cm and 3 cm, respectively) that were taken at the same location, these CSSD samples provide a near surface soil profile that is allowing us to investigate the properties of the uppermost surface. The recent success of the Lunar Soil Characterization Consortium (LSCC) has shown the utility of combining several techniques to fully characterize a soil through integrated study; we use the same approach here. This holistic perspective allows us to make crucial connections between the physical, optical, and chemical properties of the soil. First results of the Vis/NIR spectra suggest that while the deeper samples (69921, 69941) are indistinguishable from one another, the velvet sample (69004) is both darker and redder by comparison, indicating a greater accumulation of weathering products at the surface. Magnetic measurements and preliminary mineralogical analyses are in progress.
DE: 5400 PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLID SURFACE PLANETS
DE: 5460 Physical properties of materials
DE: 5464 Remote sensing
DE: 5470 Surface materials and properties
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting