NASA Is Cracking Open a 50-Year-Old Vacuum-Sealed Tube of Lunar Gas And Soil

2,196 rock samples were brought to Earth by the Apollo missions. NASA opened one of the last ones 50 years ago.

Some tubes were kept sealed so that they could be studied later, with the help of the latest technology.

The director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters said in a statement that NASA knew that science and technology would evolve and allow scientists to study the material in new ways.

The sample in question was collected in December 1972, during the Apollo 17 mission, and was the last of the program.

The tube, 35 cm long and 4 cm wide, had been hammered into the ground of the Moon to collect rocks.

Robert Markowitz works at the NASA-Johnson Space Center.

This is the first sample to be opened after it was vacuum sealed on the Moon.

It could be gases or volatile substances.

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

The outer protective tube was removed in February.

The sample it contained remained sealed, indicating that it did not contain any lunar gas.

Scientists began a weeks-long process to pierce the main tube and harvest the gas inside.

(James Blair/NASA)

Dr. Juliane Gross and Dr. Francesca McDonald are using a piercing device.

The rock will be broken up in the spring so that it can be studied by different teams.

This sample is located at the site of a landslide.

"Now we don't have rain on the Moon, so we don't understand how it happens," said the deputy Apollo curator.

The sample will be studied to understand what causes the slide.

There are only three lunar samples left to be sealed. When will they be opened?

"I don't think we'll wait another 50 years," said senior curator Ryan Zeigler.

He said that it would be nice to compare the samples from Artemis and the ones that are left with one of the remaining sealed cores.

NASA wants to send humans back to the moon in 25 years.

The experiment currently being conducted helps to better prepare for the large amount of gas that should be collected.

Agence France-Presse