Sealed Cache of Moon Rocks To Be Opened By NASA (nydailynews.com) 57
"Scientists are hoping to unlock some of the universe's mysteries through 50-year-old moon rocks," reports the New York Daily News -- specifically, three samples that spent that half century sealed in airtight canisters.
One Apollo 18 sample from 1972 contains 1.8 pounds of a vacuum-sealed lunar core that is a stratified layer of rock that will be studied by six research teams. About 842 pounds of lunar rocks and soil have been brought back to Earth over six missions. Although a great deal of it has found its way to science labs, technological breakthroughs should allow for a more thorough comprehension of the satellite's chemical and geological composition...
"When the previous generations did Apollo, they knew the technology they had in that day was not the technology we would have in this day," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. "So they made a determination that they would preserve samples. ⦠I'd like to thank, if it's OK, the Apollo generation, for preserving these samples, so that our generation could have this opportunity."
An anonymous Slashdot reader writes, "That's remarkable considering how often moon rocks were misplaced over the years."
"When the previous generations did Apollo, they knew the technology they had in that day was not the technology we would have in this day," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. "So they made a determination that they would preserve samples. ⦠I'd like to thank, if it's OK, the Apollo generation, for preserving these samples, so that our generation could have this opportunity."
An anonymous Slashdot reader writes, "That's remarkable considering how often moon rocks were misplaced over the years."
I'm almost certain (Score:5, Funny)
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If only there was a way (Score:2, Funny)
If only there was a way to get hold of more samples of moon rocks. Then we wouldn't need to preserve samples of them in vacuums for future generations.
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Apollo 18 ??? (Score:3, Informative)
Apollo 18 ? Really ?
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They're using BASE 9
Re:Apollo 18 ??? (Score:4, Funny)
Apollo 18 ? Really ?
Apollo 18? I was on that mission. Back in those days we didn't have a lot of computing power, but it was pretty amazing what you could do with a Commodore 64.
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The website says "Apollo 18" so it must be true.
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I watched the last Apollo mission launch from Titusville. That was Apollo 17.
The was no Apollo 18. (Score:1)
At least not one that flew to the Moon.
That movie was terrible (Score:3)
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Science has enabled (Score:2, Informative)
mankind to overpopulate and ruin the earths ecosystems.
It's no longer profitable to do stuff here so they are moving on to the next closest body to exploit.
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There's plenty of available planets in space; it's not like we'll run out. The hard part is getting to them making them support humans.
Getting there is also hard. Beyond Mars is pretty much impossible, and Mars itself is so small it's barely useful, even if we could make it support humans.
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We. Aren't. Overpopulated. It's a myth and a bad myth at that. The problems are elsewhere even if an increased population of course increase need for resources.
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We. Aren't. Overpopulated. It's a myth and a bad myth at that
We are overpopulated because our use of resources far exceeds their replacement rate.
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Economic development and progress in
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Economic development and progress in science and technology are the solution to overpopulation - it makes people stop having as many kids.
Nature, ..erm... , finds a way. Even in first world countries, where population is not showing a net growth, you can see a mix of people with zero children, and people with 5+ children. The first group will die out in one generation, the other group will multiply by 5+, and will dominate in 5-10 generations.
Re:Aperature Science has enabled ... Portals! (Score:1)
Quoting the infamous Cave Johnson, CEO of Aperature Science, from his 1981 recordings:
"The bean counters told me we literally could not afford to buy seven dollars worth of moon rocks, much less seventy million. Bought 'em anyway. Ground 'em up, mixed em into a gel."
"And guess what? Ground up moon rocks are pure poison. I am deathly ill."
"Still, it turns out they're a great portal conductor. So now we're gonna see if jumping in and out of these new portals can somehow leech the lunar poison out of a man's b
Uh, Apollo 18? (Score:4, Informative)
That's not the most significant thing... (Score:4, Interesting)
...it's that they were prescient enough to know that all the bullshit about space bases and stations aside, by Apollo 18 it was clear that the US government was likely stupid enough to simply 'give up' on space and 50 years later these would be the only pristine samples we'd have available by then. /weep
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They were SO stupid they gave up on Apollo 18 before it even happened (and vacuum-sealed bits of rocks from the front lawn, probably...)
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Compared to unmanned spacecraft, landers, and rovers, sending people into space incurs enormous additional costs completely disproportional to the small increase in science gained. If/when we can get launch and life support costs down to something reasonable (currently it costs nearly 50 people's lifetime productivity just to send one person into space once), then we can begin manned space exploration in earnest. But in the meantime, unmanned sp
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I'm pretty sure there are more pristine samples where those came from.
MOON SPIDERS! (Score:4, Insightful)
NASA better be careful, that bag is probably full of moon spiders. [fandom.com]
Now is the Right Time (Score:2)
So the question for NASA is when should they open this last supply of moon rocks for study. The longer they wait, the more advanced our science will be, but also the longer they wait, the longer we go without the knowledge that today's science can unlock. Well, obviously now is the right time. Why? Because soon the cache will be worthless when SpaceX returns new samples, so this is the last chance to do real science from the Apollo missions.
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Keep the box closed. Those aren't moon rocks, they're eggs!
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It's not really the "last supply" though. The samples (hundreds of them) were bagged individually and then packed in containers (IIRC 9 containers in total). These were sealed on the Moon surface, so the inside of the container is a vacuum.
6 containers were unpacked and made available for study right away. 3 containers were left sealed [astronaut.com]. The proposal from TFA is to open one of the 3 sealed containers and use one of the (many) samples in this container.
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Probably ought to let some outside of the government agencies examine samples. Since we keep finding out moon rocks given to other countries end up being terrestrial. To keep from giving more ammo to the conspiracists.
A great deal? (Score:5, Informative)
Although a great deal of it has found its way to science labs [...]
In the early 2000s I was doing some work with a NASA contractor and had the good fortune of being able to suit up and go into the clean room/vault where all of these samples are kept at JSC. In walking around, it struck me how many samples were in the vault vs. in the cases in the clean room where they could be worked on. After I asked, I was informed that roughly 95% of the samples were still in “pristine” condition in the vault, meaning they had been left entirely untouched in their original nitrogen-rich environment ever since getting back from the moon.
95%.
All of the research up to that point, over three decades’ worth, including the samples sent out to scientists, had been done on just 5% of what was brought back.
Mind you, this post isn’t a critique or commentary. This is just me trying to give some context to that comment from the summary.
FIFTY YEARS? (Score:1)