Our goal is to experimentally explore the feasibility of subsolidus reduction of lunar materials as a contributor to strong lunar magnetic anomalies. This collaboration will be the first to combine…

This federal contract award, identified as 80NSSC20K0640, was granted by the Shared Services Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to The Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. The $230,138.26 grant is for the university to experimentally explore the feasibility of subsolidus reduction of lunar materials as a contributor to strong lunar magnetic anomalies. The research will combine experimental petrology with measurements of magnetic properties of synthesized materials relevant to the lunar surface and near-surface. The work aims to quantify the grain size, abundance, and composition of metallic iron before and after heating, and compare the potential magnetization intensities to lunar crustal magnetic anomalies and swirls. This grant does not have a set-aside designation, as The Washington University is a prominent private research institution with extensive experience in federal research and development across scientific disciplines.

Our goal is to experimentally explore the feasibility of subsolidus reduction of lunar materials as a contributor to strong lunar magnetic anomalies. This collaboration will be the first to combine experimental petrology with measurements of magnetic properties of experimental material synthesized in environments relevant to the lunar surface and near surface. We will conduct controlled atmosphere heating and cooling experiments on pure ilmenite and lunar basalt analogs at temperatures of 800-1000 degrees for different durations of time to explore the kinetics of reduction. Experiments will be conducted at oxygen fugacities 1 log unit below the iron-w stite buffer, approximating the redox state of the shallow lunar crust. The grain size, abundance, and composition of metallic iron before and after heating will be quantified using a combination of petrographic observations, electron microscopy, and rock magnetic methods. The ranges of potential magnetization intensities corresponding to these iron abundances will then be compared to each other as well as to the abundances required to produce the crustal magnetic anomalies on the lunar farside and at lunar swirls a class of optical features that are CO-located with lunar magnetic anomalies.