LithoSpace - a Geochemical Data Platform for Extra-terrestrial Mineral Exploration

The importance of visualising spatial data from extra-terrestrial bodies such as the Moon, Mars and asteroids is increasing with the renewed interest in space exploration and its associated search for usable resources. LithoSpace provides the digital infrastructure to visualise extra-terrestrial spatial data including points of interest and samples collected, along with corresponding geochemistry and other analytic data. Based on LithoSurfer's proven technology for terrestrial data types, we show how the advance of data analytics and exploration tools can benefit the expanding frontiers of extra-terrestrial resource exploration. Having highly detailed relational data models enables the platform to analyse disparate data types and find relations and patterns in data collected from rovers or probes in relation to satellite imagery and topographic features. Having all data in a standardized format then provides researchers and explorers the choice to use advanced algorithms for more detailed and automated exploration of those datasets. In this study we confirm the original findings that all Apollo-11 samples are of basaltic geochemical composition but more importantly we demonstrate, using standardised and cleaned geochemistry data that already exists for the moon, that slight variations in geochemical composition can be visualized and pointed out by using LithoSpace's unique cloud-based geochemistry tools.