[meteorite-list] Celebrated Moon Rocks

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:06:04 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <200912222106.nBML65kh010858_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.psrd.hawaii.edu/Dec09/Apollo-lunar-samples.html

Celebrated Moon Rocks
Planetary Science Research Discoveries
December 21, 2009

--- Overview and status of the Apollo lunar collection: A unique, but
limited, resource of extraterrestrial material.

Written by Linda M. V. Martel
Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology

"The Need for Lunar Samples and Simulants: Where Engineering and
Science Meet" sums up one of the sessions attracting attention at the
annual meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG), held
November 16-19, 2009 in Houston, Texas. Speakers addressed the question
of how the Apollo lunar samples can be used to facilitate NASA's return
to the Moon while preserving the collection for scientific
investigation. Here is a summary of the LEAG presentations of Dr. Gary
Lofgren, Lunar Curator at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston,
Texas, and Dr. Meenakshi (Mini) Wadhwa, Professor at Arizona State
University and Chair of NASA's advisory committee called CAPTEM
(Curation and Analysis Planning Team for Extraterrestrial Materials).
Lofgren gave a status report of the collection of rocks and regolith
returned to Earth by the Apollo astronauts from six different landing
sites on the Moon in 1969-1972. Wadhwa explained the role of CAPTEM in
lunar sample allocation.

References:

    * Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG) Annual Meeting Agenda
      <http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/leag2009/presentations/index.shtml>,
      November 16-19, 2009.
    * Lunar Sample Compendium <
      http://www-curator.jsc.nasa.gov/lunar/compendium.cfm>.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Collection of Lunar Samples from Apollo Missions

The six Apollo missions that landed astronauts on the Moon returned a
collection of rock and soil samples weighing approximately 382 kilograms
(842 pounds) and consisting of 2,196 separate samples. Today there are
more than 110,000 individually numbered subsamples (split, chipped or
sawed pieces) available to investigators for detailed studies. The
collection also includes 16.5 meters (54 feet) of core samples pulled
from the top of the lunar regolith. (The fine-grained, fragmental, loose
material blanketing the Moon is most commonly referred to as soil but it
has none of the organic sediment component as on Earth. The more precise
term is regolith. The number of samples
increased as the missions progressed, as shown in the table below. Click
on the emblems for more information about the missions from NASA.

Apollo Mission 11 12 14 15 16 17 Total
Number of samples: 58 69 227 370 731 741 2196
Weight in kilograms: 21.8 34.3 42.3 77.3 95.7 110.5 381.7

These missions, the astronauts, the thousands of people who worked to
make the missions possible, and the lunar samples brought back to Earth
were celebrated worldwide.

Today NASA continues to take charge of the curation and allocation of
the Apollo lunar samples. The specially-built Lunar Sample Laboratory
Facility, 30 years old this year, is a class 10K clean room (no more
than 10,000 particles 0.5-micron size per cubic foot of air inside the
laboratory). It is housed in a special building at the Johnson Space
Center in Houston, Texas. Workers wear clean coveralls, hats, gloves,
and shoe covers to minimize contamination.

Meticulous facilities and strict handling procedures ensure the
continued scientific integrity of the Apollo lunar samples for the needs
of the research and engineering communities today and into the future.
About 70% of the total weight of Apollo lunar samples is located in the
Lunar Sample Laboratory's pristine sample vault. "Pristine" lunar
samples (those continuously in NASA custody since return from the Moon)
are stored in multiple layers of packaging in cabinets organized by
mission. They are handled in stainless-steel glove cabinets purged by
high-purity nitrogen gas, which is relatively non-reactive, in an
environment monitored continuously for oxygen and moisture contents to
minimize degradation of the samples or chemical reaction with air.

Approximately 8% of the total weight of the collection is stored in the
returned sample vault. These are samples lent to authorized researchers
and returned to NASA. They are re-inventoried as "returned" because
these samples were exposed to air when they were located in the
investigators' laboratories. The samples are individually bagged,
tagged, and are made available again for other research projects when
contamination is less of a concern.

Another 13% of the total weight is stored in the Brooks Air Force Base
remote storage facility, which was completed in 2002. This
representative sampling of the collection is stored at the second
location to ensure the entire collection would not be lost in the event
of a major hurricane or other catastrophe at Johnson Space Center.

The other 9% of the total weight of lunar samples is currently outside
the custody of the Johnson Space Center. Some are on loan to scientists
and educators for research and teaching projects; others samples are on
loan to museums, planetariums, and public scientific expositions [see
the list of international Lunar Sample Display Locations
<http://www-curator.jsc.nasa.gov/lunar/displays/displays.cfm>]; a small
percentage has been destroyed during approved experimentation; and some
pieces of Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 samples were given as official gift
plaques to all the states of the United States, to Puerto Rico, and to
135 foreign nations. U.S. regulations prohibit private ownership of
Apollo lunar samples.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lunar Sample Allocation

The last container of lunar samples from the last Apollo mission was
logged into the lunar laboratory on January 30, 1973. From their first
arrival, the samples from the Apollo Missions have been under continuous
investigation. They are, as you can imagine, highly sought after for
scientific research in cosmochemistry, and for testing hypotheses of the
origin of the Earth/Moon system, planetary formation, and solar system
evolution. The renewed interest in robotic and human exploration of the
Moon has spawned substantial interest in studying lunar materials among
the engineering/resource utilization community. Their studies sometimes
require lunar samples to validate development of tools and processes
using simulants (soils made from Earth materials to mimic lunar
properties). Because of the obviously limited supply of Apollo lunar
samples, NASA has a robust allocation system that has been in place
since the beginning of the collection. It distributes nearly 400 samples
each year.

Lunar Curator, Dr. Gary Lofgren, works with Dr. Meenakshi (Mini) Wadhwa
and CAPTEM (Curation and Analysis Planning Team for Extraterrestrial
Materials), a NASA advisory committee, to meet the needs of scientists
and engineers who wish to obtain the most appropriate materials from the
collection for their studies. Requests are considered for both basic
research in planetary science and for applied studies including lunar
materials beneficiation, resource utilization, toxicity, or hazards
assessment. NASA provides access to the Apollo rocks, soils, and
regolith core samples for destructive and non-destructive analyses.

The checklist for requestors of Apollo lunar samples looks something
like this:

   1. The investigator must demonstrate favorable peer review of
      proposed work involving lunar samples by (1) a formal research
      proposal approved for funding through a NASA program, or an
      equivalent scientific peer-review panel, within the past three
      years, or (2) peer-reviewed articles in professional journals that
      are pertinent to the specific sample request.
   2. The investigator must submit a written request to the Lunar Sample
      Curator specifying the numbers, types, and quantities of lunar
      samples, and the planned investigations to be conducted on these.
      A resume is additionally required for new investigators.

For planetary science studies, the request is submitted to the Lunar
Sample Curator, Dr. Gary Lofgren, at NASA Johnson Space Center. For
engineering/resource utilization studies, the request is submitted to
the Lunar Simulant Curator, Dr. Carlton Allen, also at NASA Johnson
Space Center, who verifies that all necessary tests with lunar simulants
have been completed satisfactorily, and determines whether the request
warrants use of lunar samples, in which case it is forwarded to the
Lunar Sample Curator.

The Lunar Sample Curator evaluates the submitted request and supporting
materials, and makes a curatorial allocation if the request is from an
investigator who has been approved previously for sample allocation by
CAPTEM, and the request is for thin sections, "returned" lunar samples,
or less than one gram of other lunar samples with no pristinity issues.
The Curator otherwise forwards the request to CAPTEM for evaluation if
the request is from a new investigator, and/or the request involves
larger than one gram of material, or any samples with pristinity issues.
Furthermore, with very few exceptions, no lunar sample will be allocated
that reduces the remaining pristine sample below 50% by weight.

The lunar sample requests forwarded to CAPTEM are evaluated by this
standing committee. A positive recommendation by CAPTEM, followed by
approval by NASA Headquarters, constitutes formal approval of the
request. The Lunar Sample Curator prepares a Lunar Sample Loan Agreement
(including a security plan) to be signed by the investigator. Finally,
samples less than 10 grams are shipped within the U.S. by U.S.
registered mail, outside the U.S. by U.S. diplomatic pouch mail to the
American embassy nearest the investigator's location. Samples larger
than 10 grams must be hand carried by the investigator or his/her
representative.


The Apollo lunar samples are a unique, but limited, resource of
extraterrestrial rocks and regolith. Rest assured these treasured
samples are in good hands. The planetary science community has a long
heritage of developing sample-handling protocols and instrumentation for
maximizing science while minimizing the amount of sample consumed. This
approach is a good one and a necessary one for assuring that these lunar
materials will be available for the ongoing testing of hypotheses, old
and new, and development of new instruments, tools, and technologies as
we plan and realize humanity's return to the Moon.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

    * Curation and Analysis Planning Team for Extraterrestrial Materials
      (CAPTEM) <http://www.lpi.usra.edu/captem/>.
    * Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG) Annual Meeting Agenda
      <http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/leag2009/presentations/index.shtml>,
      November 16-19, 2009.
    * Lunar Petrographic Educational Thin Section Set <
      http://www-curator.jsc.nasa.gov/lunar/letss/contents.cfm>.
    * Lunar Sample Atlas <http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/samples/atlas/>.
    * Lunar Sample Compendium <
      http://www-curator.jsc.nasa.gov/lunar/compendium.cfm>.
    * Moon Archive <../Archive/Archive-Moon.html> articles from
      Planetary Science Research Discoveries.
    * Rocks and Soils from the Moon
      <http://www-curator.jsc.nasa.gov/lunar/index.cfm>, website from
      Astromaterials Curation, NASA Johnson Space Center.
Received on Tue 22 Dec 2009 04:06:04 PM PST