[meteorite-list] The Apollo Moon Rock Collection

From: Carl Agee <agee_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2011 11:24:04 -0600
Message-ID: <BANLkTikWEX+mf-8CqmzQU_GRut=jbi_+PQ_at_mail.gmail.com>

Having been in charge of the Apollo Collection as well as the other
collections at NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) from 1998-2002, here is
my take on this discussion. One of the main goals of curation at JSC
is preserving the collection for posterity and for future study with
instruments not yet imagined or by scientists not yet born. The Moon
rocks are treated like a national treasure. As many of you may know,
the curation protocols at JSC are the "gold standard" for
extraterrestrial sample handling. For example, the collection is kept
in high purity nitrogen, only materials restricted to of short list of
aluminum, stainless steel, and Teflon are allow to touch the samples.
The curation facility was built as a clean lab with positive air
pressure, airlocks, and is operated by a highly trained staff. The
Lunar Vault is built to withstand hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods --
and just to be on the safe side NASA has placed 15% of the collection
at White Sands Test Facility, a few miles outside Las Cruces, New
Mexico, locked away for safe keeping just in case of a catastrophic
loss of the Lunar Lab in Houston. When people think about what a Mars
Sample Return Lab design might look like, the first place they start
from is the Lunar Sample Lab.

Clearly, JSC does a fabulous job of handling, curating, and keeping
the lunar samples safe, there is no museum or private collector in the
world that comes close to Lunar Lab quality. However, the one thing
that I think is missing from this facility is an equally spectacular
public outreach component. Sure, the public can look at a few Moon
rocks at museum displays here and there nationwide, but very few
people ever get the privilege of being a visitor at the Lunar Lab. It
is NOT open to the public. I think NASA, and JSC in particular, could
enhance its image and boost public excitement and support for
astromaterials research by somehow giving better public access to view
these crown jewels in their laboratory setting.

You may have guessed already that I'm not a big proponent of selling
off the Moon Rocks to fund NASA missions, as a few people on the list
have proposed. Even if Americans thought this was a good idea, I am
pretty sure we would come up a few billion dollars short to do
anything like a decent robotic Mars Sample Return. Furthermore, I
doubt if many Americans would be in favor of cutting up pieces of the
Declaration of Indepence or chunks of the Liberty Bell to sell as high
priced souvenirs, or sell off tracts of Yellowstone Park to reduce our
nation's debt. But I do think the Lunar Collection could be opened up
to the public in away that would be beneficial to everyone, not the
least to NASA itself.

Carl Agee

-- 
Carl B. Agee
Director and Curator, Institute of Meteoritics
Professor, Earth and Planetary Sciences
MSC03 2050
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131-1126
Tel: (505) 750-7172
Fax: (505) 277-3577
Email: agee at unm.edu
http://epswww.unm.edu/iom/pers/agee.html

Received on Mon 27 Jun 2011 01:24:04 PM PDT