MIRORES-ORBIT
A compact orbital spectrometer for prospecting resources on the Moon and small bodies.
MIRORES-ORBIT is a miniaturised 17-20 µm band spectrometer that identifies ore minerals from orbit, designed for small satellites and commercial space missions. Developed within the Akces NCBR DeepTech program.
Future lunar bases and space mining need to know which minerals are present and where they occur. Existing orbital data provides maps of major rock-forming minerals, but detailed mapping of key ore minerals remains a challenge. These minerals are hard to distinguish in the near-infrared because their signatures overlap with common silicates.
Focused far-infrared measurement
MIRORES-ORBIT measures in the far-infrared, where these minerals have distinct bands. Five spectral channels in the 17-20 µm range are tuned to the characteristic bands of ilmenite (~19.0 µm), a source of iron, titanium and oxygen associated with helium-3, and apatite (~17.5 µm), linked to rare earth elements and OH groups. Compared with full-spectrum instruments, MIRORES-ORBIT resolves these minerals with a simpler, lighter design, suitable for smaller platforms and commercial missions to the Moon and asteroids.
The project builds on MIRORES's heritage far-infrared spectrometers, already flown on drones and tested in mines and in the laboratory.
Project goals
- Orbital optics, thermal, mechanical and electronic design
- Building and calibrating a demonstrator on lunar regolith analogues
- Environmental testing: thermal vacuum, thermal cycling and vibration
- Advancing the technology from TRL 5 to TRL 6 and preparing a flight-model roadmap
Funding: Akces NCBR, HPN DeepTech program.