After sitting in storage for nearly half of a century, a trove a moon of rocks will soon be opened a
After sitting in storage for nearly half of a century, a trove a moon of rocks will soon be opened and studied by scientists.The samples were set aside by the Apollo missions with the idea that future technology would be better able to study these moon rocks. Now, it seems, that time has come. NASA announced this week it selected nine teams and awarded a total of $8 million for the project. Here are some details from NASA: The particular sample these teams will study came to Earth vacuum-sealed on the Moon by the Apollo 17 astronauts Harrison Schmitt and Gene Cernan in 1972. The Apollo 17 sample comprises about 800 grams (1.8 pounds) of material, still encased in a “drive tube” that was pounded into the lunar regolith to collect a core of material. That core preserves not just the rocks themselves but also the stratigraphy from below the surface so today’s scientists can, in a laboratory, study the rock layers exactly as they existed on the Moon. The core has been carefully stored at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, since December 1972. Read the full release: NASA Selects Teams to Study Untouched Moon Samples(Image Credit: Eugene A. Cernan, Apollo 17 Commander / NASA Caption: “11 December 1972 – Scientist-astronaut Harrison H. Schmitt collects lunar rake samples at Station 1 during the first Apollo 17 extravehicular activity (EVA) at the Taurus-Littrow landing site.”) -- source link
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