Probing the Origin(s) of Volatiles in the Moon and their Resource Potential

On the first of February twenty areas ago, the re-entry of NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia into the Earth's
atmosphere killed all the seven astronauts who were on board. One among the seven astronauts was Kalpana
Chawla, the first Indian American Woman Aerospace Engineer to go into the Space. Today in her absence,
her legacy is alive in the form of inspiration among many young girls in India to make a career in STEM.
While reading her biography "The Edge of Time" by Jean-Pierre Harrison to cope with the emptiness of the
new school, I developed my interest in Planetary Science at a very early age. Therefore, to learn more about
the formation of the Earth and the Solar system, I decided to pursue my higher education in the field of
Geology from the University of Delhi, India.
During my academic years, subjects such as Mineralogy, Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology,
Geomorphology, and Geophysics helped me gain a better understanding of the Earth and the dynamic forces
responsible for its formation. As I gradually progressed into the course, my research work majorly revolved
around the petrological investigations of the hard rocks. A summer internship on mineralogical studies of
Migmatites from Garhwal Himalayan region gave me first hands-on experience of sample preparation for
petrographic and mineral chemical studies. While I studied the samples collected from the Garhwal
Himalayas, I was fascinated to notice the heterogeneous nature of the rock, both microscopically and in
hand samples. The skills I gained during this internship were later helpful in accomplishing my masters'
research work on petrographic, mineral chemical, and geochemical characterization of Gabbros from the
Naga Hills Ophiolite Belt of India. Based on my petrographical observations, I classified the samples into
Massive and Cumulate Gabbros. I used the bulk rock data obtained from XRF analysis for the compositional
categorisation of the mineral present in the samples. Further, programmes like COREL DRAW and
Geochemical took kit were employed to plot the major oxides, trace element and REE data obtained from
ICP-MS analysis for geochemical characterisation of the samples in various bivariant plots. Besides these,
I have participated in four field trips across the northern India where I demonstrated my understanding
about various geological structures, observed different lithologies, understood the importance of scale while
collecting samples and learnt the utilisation of Brunton compass and topographic maps in geological
mapping