NASA Opens Up 50 Year Old Moonrocks In Search For Water
Moon rocks that hitched a ride back to Earth during the NASA Apollo missions have never been opened, until now. Gathering moon rocks was one of the main activities for astronauts of the Apollo missions. Up until Apollo 17, the last time humans were on the Moon, astronauts battled with sticky and magnetized Moondust and moon rocks in the name of science.
The Artemis mission is set to return humans to the Moon by 2024. While NASA has the math, technology, and rocket experience for Moon flights, it now faces new challenges as Artemis needs to set up a permanent base on the Moon. The key to a permanent base is sustainability, which means getting as many resources from the Moon as possible.
NASA scientists unsealed a 50-year old Moon rock sample for the first time to take a closer look. Their main interest is the volatile elements present in these rocks. Volatile elements include water in the form of ice and carbon dioxide. These are important elements the Artemis base will require. NASA is also updating the information, tools and resources the Artemis mission astronauts will use for Moonrock science once they get there.
In 1971, astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison “Jack” Schmitt hammered tubes into the lunar surface collecting rocks and soil from the Moon’s Taurus–Littrow valley. The astronauts of Apollo sealed one tube under vacuum on the Moon's surface. Sample ANGSA 73001, now open and being studied by NASA scientists, is part of that vacuum-sealed tube.
Most of the rocks brought from the Moon were not sealed, which means that volatile elements evaporated at Earth temperatures. That is why the sealed sample is of great interest to NASA today. “This will allow future scientists studying the Artemis samples to better understand where and what volatiles might be present in those samples,” the space agency explains.
The discoveries could also lead to innovation in rovers and new mining technologies for the Moon. NASA is already developing a rover that will extract volatile elements from the lunar regolith, and similar tech is expected to be built for the base. “A lot of people are getting excited,” NASA’s Ryan Zeigler, the Apollo sample curator says. The Apollo-era lunar samples are preparing humanity for a new mission to the Moon, this time to stay.
Source: NASA