Good things are said to come to those who wait. In early February, NASA began tapping into one of the few unopened Apollo-era lunar samples to learn more about the Moon.
And prepare for a return to the surface, believing that 50 years is the proper amount of time. When the United States led the world to the Moon’s surface during the Apollo mission, it was the zenith of human space exploration.
The missions were so ground-breaking that they continue to provide useful information about the lunar surface.
The Apollo missions to the Moon returned 2,196 rock samples to Earth. “The agency recognised science and technology would advance.
allowing scientists to study the material in new ways to answer new problems,” says said Lori Glaze, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters.
The sample was collected by astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt in December 1972 and is being opened by the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division (ARES) at Johnson Space Center in Houston.
which safeguards, studies, and shares NASA’s collection of extra-terrestrial samples. The sample was carved by hammering two 1.5-by-14-inch tubes into the lunar surface.
To collect rock and soil fragments from a landslide deposit in the Taurus-Littrow Valley. Two samples had been taken by the astronauts.
This sample’s extraction site is particularly noteworthy because it is a landslide site. Juliane Gross, deputy Apollo curator, stated, “Now we don’t have rain on the Moon. As a result, we’re not sure how landslides on the Moon happen.”
The Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis Program (ANGSA) is in charge of this project, and its goal is to learn more about the sample and the lunar surface in preparation for the upcoming ARTEMIS (Acceleration, Reconnection.
Turbulence, and Electrodynamics of the Moon’s Interaction with the Sun) missions to the Moon’s South Pole. NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
And the Canadian Space Agency are all working together on ARTEMIS (CSA). The goal of this mission is to patrol the lunar surface by 2024, focusing on the south pole region this time, which is yet to be investigated.
NASA’s Apollo sample curator Ryan Zeigler said, “A lot of people are excited.” The proposal was conceived by Dr. Charles Shearer of the University of New Mexico over a decade ago, and for the past three years, two excellent teams have been creating the unique equipment that would make it happen.”
Drs. Alex Meshik, Olga Pravdivtseva, and Rita Parai of Washington University in St. Louis invented the manifold, which is used to extract and collect the gas.
Dr. Francesca McDonald of the European Space Agency led a team in developing a specific instrument to precisely pierce the container containing the lunar sample while preventing any gas from escaping.
They’ve collaborated to develop and test a one-of-a-kind mechanism for collecting the incredibly valuable substance – both gas and solid – that’s locked inside the containers.
From left, Dr. Juliane Gross, Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division (ARES) deputy Apollo curator, alongside doctors Alex Meshik,
And Olga Pravdivtseva, from Washington University in St. Louis, begin a gas extraction process using the manifold.
NASA’s goal is to extract these gases, which are likely only present in trace amounts, so that scientists can analyse them using modern mass spectrometry techniques.
which allow scientists to precisely determine the mass of unknown molecules and use that information to accurately identify them.
This not only allows for better measurements, but it also allows the collected gas to be divided into smaller portions and shared with a larger number of researchers working on various aspects of lunar science.
The ARES crew will prepare to gently remove the soil and rocks from their container after the gas extraction procedure is completed, most likely later this spring.
Published By : Ankit Singh
Edited By : Khushi Thakur
