THE Apollo missions to the moon brought back 2,196 rock samples to Earth, but Nasa has only just started opening one of the last ones, collected 50 years ago.

For all that time, some tubes are kept sealed so they can be studied years later, with the help of the latest technical breakthroughs.

Nasa knew “science and technology will evolve and allow scientists to study the material in new ways to address new questions in the future”, said Lori Glaze, Planetary Science Division director at Nasa Headquarters.

Dubbed 73001, the sample in question was collected by astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt in December 1972, during the Apollo 17 mission – the last of the programme.

The tube, 35cm-long and 4cm-wide, had been hammered into the ground of the moon’s Taurus-Littrow valley to collect the rocks.

Of the two samples to have been vacuum-sealed on the moon, this is the first to be opened. It can as such contain gases or volatile substances (water, carbon dioxide, etc.).

The aim is to extract these gases, which are probably only present in very small quantities, to be able to analyse them using spectrometry techniques that have become extremely precise in recent years.

In early February, the outer protective tube was first removed. It was not itself revealed to contain any lunar gas, indicating that the sample it contained remained sealed.

On February 23, scientists began a weeks-long process aimed at piercing the main tube and harvesting the gas contained inside.

In the spring, the rock will then be carefully extracted and broken up so it can be studied by different scientific teams.

The extraction site of this sample is particularly interesting because it is the site of a landslide.

“We do not have rain on the moon,” said Juliane Gross, deputy Apollo curator. “And so we do not quite understand how landslides happen on the moon.”

Gross said researchers hope to study the sample to understand what causes landslides.

After 73001, there will be only three lunar samples still sealed. When will they in turn be opened?

“I doubt we will wait another 50 years,” said senior curator Ryan Zeigler.

“Particularly once they get Artemis samples back, it may be nice to do a direct comparison in real time between whatever is coming back from Artemis, and with one of these remaining unopened core, sealed cores.”

Artemis is Nasa’s next moon mission; the agency wants to send humans back to the moon in 2025.

Large amounts of gas should then be collected, and the experiment currently being conducted helps to better prepare for it. – AFP, March 11, 2022.