NASA Scientists Have
Started to study 50-year-old samples of the moon's surface that were collected during the agency's final crewed moon landing mission, Apollo 17.
In March Of This Year
Scientists at NASA cracked open a lunar sample collected during Apollo 17 and stored in 1972.
The Sample Had Sat In A Freezer
For decades at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston but recently made its way to the agency's Goddard Space Flight Facility in Maryland.
NASA Aims For This Work
To support future lunar sample studies that take place with its new crewed lunar landing program, known as Artemis.
NASA Planetary Scientist And Engineer
"By doing this work we're not just facilitating Artemis exploration, but we're facilitating future sample return and human exploration into the rest of the solar system,"
Getting The Apollo 17
Moon samples from the NASA site in Texas to Maryland was a process years in the making.
Before Leaving For Goddard
The samples had to be processed while staying frozen. They were handled with thick gloves in a clear box within a walk-in freezer that is kept at minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit