Results

Now that my research is completed, lets talk about what my findings mean. The overlap regions of mafic minerals and nickel sulfides could indicate PGMs. My research into the possibility of PGMs on Vesta led to an estimate that approximately 0.518% to 0.99% of Vesta's surface shows evidence of PGMs through my maps of mafic minerals and nickel sulfides. This means there is a possibility of PGMs on Vesta in the overlap areas that I mapped. More marker mineral maps would need to be made to be more certain that these areas contain PGMs. 

My research also shows that utilizing similar methods to those used on Earth to search for marker minerals of PGMs, it is possible to investigate and assess the distribution and accessibility of PGMs and other precious resources on asteroids.

Week 9

Here is a photo of the overlap areas of possible PGMs. I numbered each area and calculated the area for each one in Photoshop to find out how much of the investigated ares they cover. 

The numbered overlap areas cover 0.52% of Vesta and doing more calculations to apply this number to all of Vesta the overlap areas cover approximately 1% of Vesta's surface. 

Weeks 7 and 8

These past two weeks I have been finishing up my calculations for my research. I finished the area and perimeter calculations for each layer and the overlap areas. I did this by using the count tool in photoshop to label each area. Then I used the analysis section in photoshop to find the area and perimeter of each area. I exported this information and then I put the information in a table. This will be important in my results section of my AP Research paper. The overlap area of NiS and high-calcium pyroxene are the most important because they are the areas where it it most likely to find PGMs. The calculations for NiS and high-calcuim pyroxene showed that there are possible PGMs on about 0.518% of the investigated area of Vesta. This shows how much of the investigated area might have PGMs. 

I also have been working on the methods and results section of my paper and my presentation for AP Research.

Week Six and LPSC Conference!

Last week we had trouble with the QGIS software saving and uploading the maps so we decided it would be best to just use photoshop. But this week I was able to actually map! I used the processed mafic minerals map and NiS map. I made a new layer in photoshop and used the polygon selection tool and the paint bucket tool to map the areas of interest. On the mafic mineral map I mapped each of the darkest areas of red, blue, and green. On the NiS map I mapped the lightest and darkest areas. Once I completed this I layered both maps on top of each other and mapped the areas where the mafic minerals and nickel sulfides overlapped. The reason for this is that mafic minerals alone are not strong indicators of PGMs so areas that have mafic minerals and NiS are more likely to indicate PGMs.

On Thursday I also went to the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference! I was part of the poster session. This means I stood by my poster while scientists that were interested in my research asked me questions. Explaining my project to so many people and answering their questions really helped me understand it more and will help me in my other presentations. I was able to meet so many interesting people and I am so grateful I was able to go! Here is what my poster looked like!

Week Five

This week I did some more background research. I continued reading "Mining the Sky" by John S. Lewis. The book explains how we can mine for precious metals on asteroids, comets, and planets. It also explains why this is a good option because earths growing population. He says there billions of dollars worth of metals, fuels, and life-sustaining substances that await in nearby space. At first I didn't love the book, but now that I have read more of it I am starting to find it very interesting. It is a book about space that is written in a way that catches your attention. I also worked more on my literature review for my AP Research paper. 

I was not able to work on mapping the marker minerals this week because my advisor is out of town. I was going to start data without him, but he had technical difficulties while traveling and was not able to upload the needed materials. 

Week Four

Last week I organized the layers for the geological features map of Vesta. This week I tried to upload the actual map that goes along with the layers but it was unsuccessful. When I uploaded it as a rastor layer to the existing layers to QGIS, it says there is an error. The map gets imported but does not actually show up. So hopefully we can figure out a way to fix it so that the map is visible. I was going to start the mineral mapping this week but unfortunately my advisor is out of town he could not get me the maps. But next week I am hoping to start on the marker mineral mapping!

I also read through a study done on the surface of Vesta. The research focused on figuring out more about the the orange material on Vesta. These orange areas were seen from the visual and infrared spectrometer on the Dawn mission. There are also many different maps of Vesta and its features included in the reaearch. There is even a mineral map. This research will help me know how to format my research and it will give me an idea of what some of the colors on the Vesta map mean. 

Week Three

I got to look at a new map this week! This week I focused on understanding a new map of Vesta. This map had all of the geological areas already mapped by the Vesta team. This map will be helpful once I make my PGM marker mineral map because it will show what geological feature each mineral is on. For example, this might be something like there are some PGM marker minerals on a group of craters. This will also show what geological areas have the most PGM marker minerals. The PGM marker minerals I will be looking for include: sulfides, chromite, ultramafic minerals, unite, and Ni-Cu.


I organized all of the Vesta teams layers so they were easier for me to use. When these layers were made the map was split into sections and different people mapped each section. Because of this each section used different colors for different features. So I went through and made every feature that was the same one color so it was easier to tell where each feature is. Here is a picture of what their geological features look like. The yellow areas are craters, the blue areas are surface features, the green areas are location features, the geo contacts are maroon, the linear features are navy, and the purple is geo units.

Week Two

This week I continued to work in the QGIS software. I am still using a map of the surface of Vesta. I made some new layers on the map for the light and dark areas using polygons. Also, I added a layer for irregular features. Irregular features are just places where craters are a different color or places where there is a unique shape and color. Once I made these layers, I used the field calculator tool to find the area, perimeter and center of the light, dark, and irregular features. After I did this is was easy to find the basic statistics of each layer. These statistics came out to be really large numbers. At first this seemed wrong but upon closer examination realized the data was in centimeters. I also researched what each geometry tool is in the field calculator so when I use it again I will know what each tool means. For example, the tool xat or yat retrieves the x or y coordinate for the selected feature.

This picture shows the light, dark and irregular features on Vesta. The light areas are in blue and the dark areas are in red. I ignored the top of the map and the very bottom because there was no way to tell if the poles are light or dark. The irregular features are in green.

Week One

This week I was able to further learn how to use the QGIS software. I have been practicing using some of the mapping tools with a map of Vesta. This is just a map of Vesta craters and lines and I will not be using this for the mineral mapping but as a template. I outlined all of the large craters on the map with the polygon tool. I also tried to map lines but they did not save and for times sake we needed to move on. One of the important tools in QGIS is the statistical analysis it does. These last few days I have been learning how to use basic statistics in QGIS. More specifically, the geoprocessing tools. I used the convex Hull(s) tool and selected an area of craters to determine what the smallest amount of area is with the selected craters. I used the intersect tool to figure out where craters overlap. This will be helpful in determining what minerals are overlaid. After learning more about how QGIS works I feel more confident and I understand now how to use it. The mineral maps will be easier to use now because I am familiar with the software.

Also this week I got confirmation my abstract was selected for the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. This means I will get to present my findings on a poster at LPSC, one of the biggest space conferences!

Introduction

My name is Noelle, and I am a senior this year at BASIS Flagstaff. I am doing my Senior Research Project on the asteroid Vesta. I will be mapping the Platinum Group Metal (PGM) content on Vesta with the mapping software Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS). Once I have mapped the PGMs I will be able to determine if it is viable to move mining for PGMs to asteroids, specifically Vesta.

We picked Vesta because it has the best surface for potential mining. We were originally going to use Ceres, but realized its surface has been changed and the marker minerals we would need to determine if there are PGMs are in the center of the dwarf planet. This is not optimal, so we decided Vesta would be a better subject because the marker minerals are on the surface. Vesta is one of the largest asteroids in the asteroid belt. Its mean diameter is 525 kilometers. Vesta's official name is "4 Vesta" because it was the fourth asteroid discovered.

My advisor for this project is Dr. Moses Milazzo. He works in the Astrogeology Department at USGS in Flagstaff. He will be advising me and helping me use the mapping software and providing me with the data from NASA's Dawn mission.

I am also going to present my findings on Vesta at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston at the end of March. I will be doing a poster presentation. This is an amazing opportunity I was given to present with college students, and I am very excited!

I will be going to the USGS Astrogeology Science Center for my volunteering. The link to USGS is:  https://astrogeology.usgs.gov