NASA Unseals Lunar Samples from Apollo Prepping for New Mission to Moon

Before NASA sends human beings back to the Moon, researchers examined pristine lunar samples returned by the Apollo astronauts. Here’s what they are hoping to find— and what remains to be discovered.

Researchers at NASA have opened a sample of material from the Moon untouched by humans for more than four decades. When this material was brought to Earth by the astronauts of the Apollo 17 mission, I am Woman by Helen Reddy headed the Top 40 music chart, The Price is Right premiered on CBS, and the North Vietnamese government walked out of the Paris Peace Talks.

Today, a new examination of this material, collected by Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, could answer mysteries about the Moon, as NASA prepares for the return of humans to the lunar surface as part of the Artemis program.

Andrea Mosie, Charis Krysher and Juliane Gross open lunar sample 73002 at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The Moon rocks inside this tube have remained untouched since they were collected on the lunar surface and brought to Earth by Apollo astronauts more than four decades ago. Credits: NASA/James Blair

This is the first time in more than four decades that a pristine sample of lunar material from Apollo has been unsealed. The sample was opened on November 5 at Lunar Curation Laboratory at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston as part of NASA’s Apollo Next-Generation Sample Analysis (ANGSA) initiative. The vision behind ANGSA is to study Apollo samples using technology, techniques, and knowledge not known about in the days of shirtwaist dresses and wrapped jackets.