At 60,000 feet above the Earth's surface, a NASA aircraft is on a mission to uncover the hidden treasures of the mineral world. The Airborne Visible → Infrared Imaging Spectrometer-5 (AVIRIS-5), a sensor developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), is scouring the American West for critical minerals that power consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and clean energy technologies.
This unassuming device, roughly the size of a microwave, has been flying high since 1986, with continuous improvements made by JPL over the years. AVIRIS-5 is part of the GEMx project, a joint research endeavor with the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) aimed at detecting surface traces of critical minerals. These minerals, including aluminum, lithium, zinc, graphite, tungsten, and titanium, are essential for manufacturing supply chains of crucial technologies such as semiconductors, solar electricity systems, and electric vehicle batteries.
The GEMx project has already covered over 366,000 square miles of the American West since 2023, with deserts proving to be an ideal spot for mineral spectroscopy due to the scarcity of trees. AVIRIS-5 works by detecting the unique chemical structures of these minerals, which reflect different wavelengths of light, ← →
The sensor is called AVIRIS-5 (Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer-5), and it comes from technology developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion ...Find other details related to this topic: See here
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