Mineralogical Mapping of Pyroxene and Anorthosite in Dryden Crater Using M3 Hyperspectral Data

The Moon continues to engage scientific interest as a critical platform for technological innovation and potential extraterrestrial resource exploration. This research presents a comprehensive mineralogical characterization of the Dryden crater located in the South Pole–Aitken basin (SPA) leveraging state-of-the-art remote sensing and spectral mapping technologies.

Our methodology synthesizes hyperspectral data from NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), integrated with topographical datasets from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) and SELenological and Engineering Explorer (SELENE) Kaguya digital elevation model (SLDEM2015). By employing sophisticated MoonIndex spectral indices and RGB compositional mapping, we conducted a detailed surface composition investigation.

The resulting mineral map reveals distributions of pyroxene and anorthosite, precisely delineating their spatial boundaries. This detailed mineralogical assessment provides critical insights into the crater's geological evolution, offering valuable contextual information for future lunar exploration strategies.

This work supports strategic mission planning, identifies potential resource locations, and paves the way for future robotic and human lunar exploration, expanding our collective knowledge of planetary scientific frontiers.