Winston
Lorenzo von Matterhorn
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Should We Open Some Sealed Apollo Moon Samples?
https://www.space.com/39870-should-we-open-sealed-apollo-moon-samples.html
Between 1969 and 1972, Apollo astronauts brought back to Earth a total of nine containers of moon material that were sealed on the lunar surface.
Two of the larger sealed samples were collected by Apollo 17 moonwalkers in December 1972. Three sealed samples from Apollo 15, 16 and 17 remain unopened. (to preserve "volatiles", substances with relatively low boiling points. - W)
"Samples were intentionally saved for a time when technology and instrumentation had advanced to the point that we could maximize the scientific return on these unique samples," said NASA's Ryan Zeigler, Apollo sample curator and manager of the Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office in Houston.
"Given the recent renewed interest in the moon, and specifically about the volatile budget of lunar regolith, these sealed samples likely contain information that would be important in the design of future lunar missions," Zeigler said.
Zeigler isn't the only researcher who'd like to unseal some of the remaining Apollo samples. He's joined in this advocacy by Charles Shearer of the Institute of Meteoritics, Department of Earth and Planetary Science at the University of New Mexico and Clive Neal at the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering & Earth Sciences at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
They'll be making their case later this month at the 49th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, which is organized by the Lunar & Planetary Institute in Houston, an arm of the Universities Space Research Association. The conference will be held in The Woodlands, Texas, from March 19 through March 23.
https://www.space.com/39870-should-we-open-sealed-apollo-moon-samples.html
Between 1969 and 1972, Apollo astronauts brought back to Earth a total of nine containers of moon material that were sealed on the lunar surface.
Two of the larger sealed samples were collected by Apollo 17 moonwalkers in December 1972. Three sealed samples from Apollo 15, 16 and 17 remain unopened. (to preserve "volatiles", substances with relatively low boiling points. - W)
"Samples were intentionally saved for a time when technology and instrumentation had advanced to the point that we could maximize the scientific return on these unique samples," said NASA's Ryan Zeigler, Apollo sample curator and manager of the Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office in Houston.
"Given the recent renewed interest in the moon, and specifically about the volatile budget of lunar regolith, these sealed samples likely contain information that would be important in the design of future lunar missions," Zeigler said.
Zeigler isn't the only researcher who'd like to unseal some of the remaining Apollo samples. He's joined in this advocacy by Charles Shearer of the Institute of Meteoritics, Department of Earth and Planetary Science at the University of New Mexico and Clive Neal at the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering & Earth Sciences at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
They'll be making their case later this month at the 49th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, which is organized by the Lunar & Planetary Institute in Houston, an arm of the Universities Space Research Association. The conference will be held in The Woodlands, Texas, from March 19 through March 23.
