60,000 feet above Earth, NASA is hunting for the minerals that power phones, EVs and clean energy

NASA has a new high-tech sensor to help the search for critical minerals in the American West.

The sensor is called AVIRIS-5 (Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer-5), and it comes from technology developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) back in the 1970s. About the size of a microwave, AVIRIS-5 fits inside the nose of one of NASA's ER-2 high-altitude research aircraft. The sensor's first iteration was employed in 1986, and JPL has worked to improve it ever since.

AVIRIS-5 is one of the newest tools in a joint research project from NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) called GEMx. The project is designed to search for surface traces of critical minerals, which are central to manufacturing consumer electronics and military technology.

GEMx is an ongoing project. One of the reasons why deserts are an ideal spot for mineral spectroscopy is because few trees grow there. Since 2023, the joint team has covered more than 366,000 square miles (950,000 square kilometers) in the vast expanse of the American West.

Many of the minerals that the GEMx project is trying to find have "unique chemical structures," that reflect different wavelengths of light. By detecting this reflected light, AVIRIS-5 is able to uncover the "spectral fingerprints" that are specific to the critical minerals.

The USGS defines critical minerals as those that have "significant consequences for the economic or national security of the U.S." These include aluminum, lithium, zinc, graphite, tungsten and titanium. Minerals such as these are used in the manufacturing supply chains for crucial technologies such as semiconductors, solar electricity systems or electric vehicle batteries.

In March 2025, the White House issued an Executive Order to boost the production of these minerals "to the maximum possible extent," stating that American national and economic security are "now acutely threatened by our reliance upon hostile foreign powers' mineral production"

Aside from helping hunt for critical minerals, spectrometers similar to AVIRIS-5 that JPL has designed over the years have also been used on spacecraft to help NASA scientists understand more about planets in our solar system, like Mars, Mercury, and Pluto.

"One is en route to Europa, an ocean moon of Jupiter, to search for the chemical ingredients needed to support life," a JPL spokesperson wrote in a statement.

Dana Chadwick, a JPL Earth system scientist, envisions many more uses for the new sensor besides hunting minerals in the desert.

"The breadth of different questions you can take on with this technology is really exciting, from land management to snowpack water resources to wildfire risk," Chadwick said in a statement. "Critical minerals are just the beginning for AVIRIS-5."