The sample fragments of the moon have not been touched for the last 50 years.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, TEXAS – Ketika Apollo mission 15 and 17 returned to Earth with fragments of the Moon in 1971 and 1972, some samples being set aside for the future. After half a century and this sample is finally studied.
In 2019, shortly after the upcoming Artemis mission to the Moon was announced, nine research teams were selected to analyze the untouched rock and soil brought back by the Apollo missions. Some of the vacuum-sealed samples had never been opened on Earth before. Others have been carefully stored in the refrigerator since their arrival 50 years ago.
Transport valuable cargo from Texas to the laboratory NASA across the country required years of preparation. A special facility had to be built in Maryland at the Goddard Space Flight Center to accommodate lunar samples. It took four years to prepare.
Only now can researchers finally begin to analyze the long-held treasures of the Apollo missions in preparation for the Artemis mission.
“When you think about how these samples came from other worlds, how far they traveled and the history of the Solar System they store in them, it always surprises me,” said planetary scientist Natalie Curran, who studies month sample in Goddard, quoted from SciencealertThursday (5/5/2022).
Some of the pieces of the moon that Curran is analyzing were frozen when they arrived on Earth in 1972. These samples had to be stored under the right conditions.
To handle valuable samples, researchers must include: walk-in-freezer who were kept at minus 20 degrees Celsius and put their hands in a glove box cleaned with nitrogen. Only when their hands are covered with thick rubber gloves can they touch the moonstone.
“Everything we do involves a lot of logistics and a lot of infrastructure, but adding cold weather makes it that much more difficult,” said astromaterials researcher Ryan Zeigler, who helped devise the lab’s handling methods.
“This is an important learning lesson for Artemis, as the ability to process samples in cold weather will be even more important for the Artemis mission than it was for Apollo. This work gives us some lessons and good input for Artemis,” he said.
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