[meteorite-list] Apollo astronauts trained to NOT pick up meteorites on moon

From: EKGMARS_at_aol.com <EKGMARS_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Sep 6 16:39:10 2006
Message-ID: <528.6e16ba6.3229891d_at_aol.com>

     Regarding the discussions about picking up meteorites on the moon. The
Apollo astronauts were specifically trained by NASA to NOT pick up meteorites
on the moon. The classes were taught by Prof. Carleton Moore of the Center
for Meteorite Studies, Arizona State University and Don Elston of the USGS in
Flagstaff, AZ. It was felt that because the astronaut's time on the moon was
so limited and the mass of material that could be returned from the moon also
limited, it would be better to leave any "discovered" meteorites on the moon.
   I was a student of Carleton Moore during the time he taught the classes to
the astronauts. I still have one of the briefing packages on meteorites
given to the Apollo astronauts.
     However, Ursula Marvin of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory,
Cambridge, MA, did find a meteorite fragment in one of the soils she examined.
That discovery is published in the early Proceedings of the Lunar and
Planetary Science Conference (Second or Third Conf. Proceedings).

Everett Gibson
ekgmars_at_aol.com
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Received on Fri 01 Sep 2006 09:01:17 AM PDT