We want to see what we can find in the earth

"I’m a remote sensing geologist," says Chris Hecker. Not a profession you hear of every day. The ITC researcher’s expertise has even earned him a spot on one of NASA’s Science and Application Teams, where he is leading project GeoHot. Its goal is to use a sensor on the International Space Station to find new geothermal fields.

‘In general, the focus of my work is to use remote sensing to find geo-resources. Those include precious minerals, critical raw materials such as lithium for batteries, rare earth elements for magnets and so on. Essentially, we want to see what we can find in the earth that can help us to develop as humanity and to support the energy transition,’ explains the scientist.

Hecker’s specialization is so called thermal infrared imaging, which allows him to detect not only particular minerals but also temperature differences – something that will come in handy in the aforementioned project for NASA. ....Read Full Article