Determining the Composition of Planetary Surfaces
Using Reflectance Spectrometry

A version of this activity was first introduced to me by Brian Grigsby from Arizona State University at the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) National Education Conference held in Cocoa Beach, Florida in August, 2005.  Since that time, I have refined the activity and conducted it at several teacher workshops using ALTA spectrometer classroom kits provided by the Lunar & Planetary Institute of Houston, Texas.  Reflectance spectrometery technology is bieng used by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) onboard MRO to determine from orbit the composition of the Mars suface at prospective landing sites.

/ Lesson Plan / Alta Spectromter Operating Instructions/
/ Basalt Data Sheet / Olivine Data Sheet / Ilmentite Data Sheet / Moon Regolith Data Sheet / Mars Regolith Data Sheet /
/ Reflectance Spectrometry Results Graph /