NASA is using Lockheed U2 spy planes to hunt for minerals in the desert

As it stands, China dominates the market for some key resources like cobalt, lithium, rare earths, and other critical minerals in terms of processing and refining, according to a White House fact sheet published in 2022. This is where, in part, NASA's and USGS' GEMx mission will prove pivotal in helping the United States reduce its dependence on potentially hostile suppliers of these materials, like China. Providing, of course, the mission finds any viable sources in the target areas.

The GEMx mission involves using NASA's ER-2 and one of NASA's modified Gulfstream V business jets to fly over the arid regions of the American Southwest, including California, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. During the mission, the ER-2 will be flying at altitudes of 65,000 feet (19,800 m), equipped with special sensors that collect what are known as hyperspectral images.

“For this mission, we are flying at approximately 65,000 feet to acquire wide swaths of geophysical data with every overflight,” said Kevin Reath, NASA deputy program manager for GEMx. The instruments are flying higher than previous airborne instruments to collect data over a wider area, yet the images collected have finer detail than a satellite view. “It’s thanks to this high-altitude flying capability that we can cover such a large area," Reath said.

"If this mission can successfully identify critical minerals in minable locations in the U.S., we could be less dependent on foreign entities for these critical minerals," he added.

For the task at hand, NASA has mounted various sensors on the ER-2 and Gulfstream V. These include NASA's AVIRIS (Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer), HyTES (Hyperspectral Thermal Emission Spectrometer), and MASTER (MODIS/ASTER Airborne Simulator). As NASA explains, optical sensors on these instruments capture hyperspectral images, which reveal the hidden complexities of seemingly uniform or monochromatic surfaces through the use of color. These visual data sets help identify the composition and alterations of the Earth's surface and atmosphere.

National resource security

The Biden-Harris administration has prioritized the expansion of the United States' domestic supply of critical minerals in recent years. In 2021, they signed an Executive Order to reduce the country's over-reliance on foreign sources and adversarial nations for these minerals and materials that pose national and economic security threats.

According to NASA's projections, the GEMx project is estimated to cost $16 million and will continue until Autumn of 2026.