NASA’s latest resource mapping technology, the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer-5 (AVIRIS-5), took to the skies aboard a high-altitude research plane. The agency’s latest sensor focuses on mapping rocks that host lithium and other critical minerals buried 60,000 feet deep within the Earth’s surface.

The AVIRIS-5  sensor is part of the country’s largest airborne mapping campaign of its kind.

Roughly the size of a microwave oven, the mapping instrument detects the spectral “fingerprints” of minerals and compounds in reflected sunlight. Additionally, the technology capitalizes on the molecules’ unique chemical structures that absorb and reflect specific wavelengths of light.

This is no new concept. According to NASA, the imaging spectrometer technology was pioneered by the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in the late 1970s. This technology was no stranger to space technology. Its “cousins” were used to trace Martian crust, reveal lakes on Titan, and track mineral-rich dust across the Sahara Desert. Additionally, NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument was the first to discover water on the lunar surface in 2009.

A New Era of Mapping

Engineers at JPL’s Microdevices Lab create the components responsible for each instrument’s success. The hardware incorporates advanced materials, including one of the darkest substances ever, known as black silicon. This material prevents stray light from interfering with the samples. AVIRIS-5 is the fourth generation of this instrument, featuring a spatial resolution that is twice as fine as that of previous instruments.

The airborne component of the larger USGS Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI), called the Geological Earth Mapping Experiment (GEMx), is the current effort. Since 2023, NASA and USGS have gathered data over more than 366,000 square miles of the American West. This dry, treeless environment is well-suited for mineral spectroscopy.

Initial findings have already yielded exciting results. According to NASA scientists, the results include the identification of a lithium-bearing clay in the leftover waste material of an abandoned mine in California.

While identifying critical minerals is key, GEMx’s long-term goals are broad. For example, the experiment aims to capture new value from old and abandoned prospects. Additionally, scientists want to identify sources of environmental hazards like acid mine drainage.

“The breadth of different questions you can take on with this technology is really exciting, from land management to snowpack water resources to wildfire risk,” said Dana Chadwick, an Earth system scientist at NASA JPL. “Critical minerals are just the beginning for AVIRIS-5.”