NASA opened one of the last Moon dust samples

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════ ⋆★ Something for us ★⋆ ════

When NASA landed people on the moon between 1969 to 1972, the Astronauts collected soil samples from the moon to bring back to Earth for research.

The samples were collected in a 14 inch (35cm) vacuum sealed container tubes to prevent it from getting exposed to air on Earth and the samples contained various types including dust, rocks and even core samples where you take a rod of sample vertically. These samples were also collected from many locations, astronauts even used the moon rover for this reason in some missions.

These samples were stored inside glove boxes in pure nitrogen atmosphere at the Johnson Space Center in Houston for preservation, and 50 years later, the scientists left some for us! There were samples left for older generations to research with more modern technology and instruments which would possibly discover more about the Moon and our universe.

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The particular sample opened a few days ago was from Apollo 17, with the very person who collected it himself present, Dr. Harrison Schmitt, who was one of the geologists to set foot on the moon.

═══ ⋆★ More samples coming! ★⋆ ═══

With the Artemis program that is planned to land humans back on the moon in a few years, more prospects for our understanding of the moon is clearly visible.

The samples collected were mostly from the Moon's equator, as landing on the poles with an Apollo mission would be very complex and risky.

But with the Artemis Program, we will land on the Lunar south pole, where we've discovered small amounts of water in the craters.