Slashdot Mirror
Sealed Cache of Moon Rocks To Be Opened By NASA (nydailynews.com)
"Scientists are hoping to unlock some of the universe's mysteries through 50-year-old moon rocks," reports the New York Daily News -- specifically, three samples that spent that half century sealed in airtight canisters.
One Apollo 18 sample from 1972 contains 1.8 pounds of a vacuum-sealed lunar core that is a stratified layer of rock that will be studied by six research teams. About 842 pounds of lunar rocks and soil have been brought back to Earth over six missions. Although a great deal of it has found its way to science labs, technological breakthroughs should allow for a more thorough comprehension of the satellite's chemical and geological composition...
"When the previous generations did Apollo, they knew the technology they had in that day was not the technology we would have in this day," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. "So they made a determination that they would preserve samples. ⦠I'd like to thank, if it's OK, the Apollo generation, for preserving these samples, so that our generation could have this opportunity."
An anonymous Slashdot reader writes, "That's remarkable considering how often moon rocks were misplaced over the years."
"When the previous generations did Apollo, they knew the technology they had in that day was not the technology we would have in this day," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. "So they made a determination that they would preserve samples. ⦠I'd like to thank, if it's OK, the Apollo generation, for preserving these samples, so that our generation could have this opportunity."
An anonymous Slashdot reader writes, "That's remarkable considering how often moon rocks were misplaced over the years."
Apollo 18 ? Really ?
mankind to overpopulate and ruin the earths ecosystems.
It's no longer profitable to do stuff here so they are moving on to the next closest body to exploit.
Rick B.
Hate to nitpick, but the "public" Apollo missions stopped at Apollo 17. You just blew their cover!
Although a great deal of it has found its way to science labs [...]
In the early 2000s I was doing some work with a NASA contractor and had the good fortune of being able to suit up and go into the clean room/vault where all of these samples are kept at JSC. In walking around, it struck me how many samples were in the vault vs. in the cases in the clean room where they could be worked on. After I asked, I was informed that roughly 95% of the samples were still in “pristine” condition in the vault, meaning they had been left entirely untouched in their original nitrogen-rich environment ever since getting back from the moon.
95%.
All of the research up to that point, over three decades’ worth, including the samples sent out to scientists, had been done on just 5% of what was brought back.
Mind you, this post isn’t a critique or commentary. This is just me trying to give some context to that comment from the summary.