• Question: What rocks and minerals make up the moon? Thanks

    Asked by Quinn Atkins to Andrea, Charlie 🚀, Col Op, Kirsty, Vinita on 20 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Kirsty Lindsay

      Kirsty Lindsay answered on 20 Jun 2016:

      The Moon has a few different types of geology- seas ( mares) which are basalt plains and highlands, which are hills and mountains. There are no active plate Technics so there are no sedimentary rocks like sandstone, but when the Moon was young it was hot, so there are igneous rocks like on Earth near volcanoes.

    • Photo: Andrea Boyd

      Andrea Boyd answered on 20 Jun 2016:

      What Kirsty said about the rock composition.

      There is some Helium and Hydrogen and Oxygen compounds which engineers are very interested in too for resources and building materials. The surface is mostly a fine powder. At the European Astronaut Centre we have a group working on 3D printing a Moonbase from this lunar dust. And also using lunar regolith for energy storage and other epic future projects!

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