On this picture, a NASA astronaut is on the Moon amassing lunar samples utilizing a rake. This Moon touchdown was a part of the Apollo 11 mission, which was the very first mission to land astronauts on the Moon. These astronauts have been Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Apollo 11 carried the primary geologic samples from the Moon again to Earth. In all, astronauts collected 22 kg of fabric, together with 50 rocks, samples of the fine-grained lunar soil, and two core tubes that included materials from as much as 13 cm beneath the Moon’s floor. These samples contained no water and supplied no proof of residing organisms at any time within the Moon’s historical past. Credit score: NASA

The place are the Moon rocks?

The place are the Moon rocks from the Apollo missions saved? Once they’re not being studied by establishments or loved by museumgoers, NASA has a specialised Lunar Pattern Curation Laboratory at NASA’s Johnson House Heart to retailer and hold these otherworldly samples protected.

Finding out these samples helps us be taught extra concerning the origin of not solely our moon, however our planet. Deputy Apollo Pattern Curator (September 2019 – December 2022) Dr. Juliane Gross explains extra about lunar pattern curation.

Video Transcript:

We’re within the lunar curation facility right here, and that is the place the Moon rocks are saved. I’m tremendous excited concerning the upcoming Artemis missions as a result of we’re going to return to the Moon. We’re going to go to the South Pole. We’re going to carry again totally different samples this time.

Finding out Moon rocks is actually vital as a result of we are able to be taught concerning the Moon. We are able to study Earth. We are able to study their historical past, their delivery collectively 4.5 billion years in the past. And we are able to additionally be taught concerning the photo voltaic system and the planets inside.

It is a clear room facility, and so which means the air will get filtered and we’ve to put on these particular fits. And the Moon rocks are saved in these cupboards which can be crammed with nitrogen. And we do this as a result of we wish to hold them protected from Earth water and Earth ambiance and naturally germs and all kinds of different bizarre issues.

And learning Apollo samples, the Moon rocks we’ve right here, will assist us to grasp what we are able to discover there and what sort of instruments we’d like, so we are able to accumulate extra samples and produce them again to review for the following era of lunar scientists.

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