Lunar stone cutting

Forum: SSI-List
Thread: Lunar stone cutting

# 14812 byCharles Radley on May 18, 2001, 9:01 a.m.
Member since 2022-08-22

>
> Does anyone know where I can find information on the hardness of various lunar
> rock types?
>

>From standard geology text books, at least by reference to the
corresponding terrestrial minerals and rocks.

Defintions (taught to me in high school):

Note, a ROCK is comprised of several different types of MINERAL
crystals, bound together by a matrix.

Each mineral has a different hardness.

For example the rock granite containts feldspar, quartz, and other
minerals (which I have forgotten),
each of which has a different hardness. The rock itself can have an
aggregate hardness if it is homogenous enough.

Geology text books are full of hardness numbers, it is a common method
of identifying minerals and rocks in the field when there is no
laboratory immediately available.

My understanding of lunar geology goes like this:- all the minerals
found on the Moon have already been seen on Earth. Some lunar rocks
are identical. Some lunar rocks are different, but only differ in the
proportions of the minerals when compared to Earth rocks.