{"id":17891,"date":"2019-11-06T18:57:12","date_gmt":"2019-11-06T10:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-cracks-open-a-sample-of-moon-soil-thats-been-shut-away-for-four-decades\/"},"modified":"2019-11-06T18:57:12","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T10:57:12","slug":"nasa-cracks-open-a-sample-of-moon-soil-thats-been-shut-away-for-four-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-cracks-open-a-sample-of-moon-soil-thats-been-shut-away-for-four-decades\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA cracks open a sample of moon soil that\u2019s been shut away for four decades"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Apollo sample processors Andrea Mosie, Charis Krysher and Juliane Gross open lunar sample 73002 at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston. (NASA Photo \/ James Blair)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the first time in more than 40 years, NASA has opened up a pristine sample of moon dirt and rocks that was collected during the Apollo missions.<\/p>\n

Scientists hope that a close analysis of the material from a 2-foot-long, nearly 2-inch-wide core sample will help astronauts get ready for a new series of Artemis moon missions in the 2020s.<\/p>\n

When Apollo\u2019s moonwalkers collected samples of lunar soil and rock, also known as regolith, some of those samples were tucked away at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center with the expectation that analytical tools would improve over the course of the decades that followed. The idea was to keep the samples fresh until the proper time.<\/p>\n

NASA says that proper time is now.<\/p>\n

The first of the stored lunar samples, known as 73002, was pushed out of its container at Johnson Space Center\u2019s Lunar Curation Laboratory on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\"Lunar
Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan prepares to collect samples 73001 and 73002 during the 1972 lunar mission. (NASA Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s a sampling of regolith that was collected with a coring tube from a landslide deposit near Lara Crater at the Apollo 17 landing site in 1972. The sample preserves the sequence of layers of lunar soil in a long column.<\/p>\n

A lab team will spend the next several months processing the sample and distributing parts of it to scientists participating in the Apollo Next-Generation Sample Analysis Program, or ANGSA.<\/p>\n

Team members got their first high-resolution look at the sample even before it was taken out of the tube, thanks to an X-ray scan that was conducted at the University of Texas at Austin. The 3-D imagery will guide sample processors as they divide the column of dirt into quarter-inch segments for detailed study.<\/p>\n

This video features X-ray imagery acquired with the help of Dave Edey and Romy Hanna at the University of Texas:<\/strong><\/p>\n