NASA scientists opened an untouched rock and soil sample from the Moon returned to Earth on Apollo 17, marking the first time in more than 40 years a pristine sample of rock and regolith from the Apollo era has been opened. It sets the stage for scientists to practice techniques to study future samples collected on Artemis missions.
The sample, opened Nov. 5, in the Lunar Curation Laboratory at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston, was collected on the Moon by Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, who drove a 4-centimeter-wide tube into the surface of the Moon to collect it and another sample scheduled to be opened in January. The sample was opened as part of NASA's Apollo Next-Generation Sample Analysis (ANGSA) initiative, which is leveraging advanced technologies to study Apollo samples using new tools that were not available when the samples were originally returned to Earth.
"We are able to make measurements today that were just not possible during the years of the Apollo program," said Dr. Sarah Noble, ANGSA program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The analysis of these samples will maximize the science return from Apollo, as well as enable a new generation of scientists and curators to refine their techniques and help prepare future explorers for lunar missions anticipated in the 2020s and beyond."
