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The Apollo specimens are America's Crown Jewels and are doled out in ultra-small samples to scientists who can demonstrate that nothing else will do for high-value experiments.
it was realized that impact events on the lunar surface eject material into space that falls to Earth as meteorites. Dozens of lunar meteorites have now been found. These are essentially free planetary samples, because nature has delivered them to Earth, without the cost of a spacecraft mission... These are invaluable samples, because they represent a much broader region of the lunar surface. Indeed, they are launched from all areas of the Moon, including the far side of the Moon, which lies hidden from our view
There are hundreds of pounds of moondust at the Lunar Sample Lab in Houston.
During the six Apollo surface excursions, 2,415 samples weighing 382 kg (842 lb) were collected, the majority by Apollo 15, 16, and 17.
Houston asks Apollo 16 astronaut Charlie Duke to pick up a big moon rock. Duke later named it 'Big Muley'. The other astronaut, John Young, walks casually through the background on his way to the lunar rover.
Duke says the rock is the size of a football. Of course he means an American football. A Rugby football is much larger than this.Duke originally estimates the weight to be about 40lb. However, due to lunar gravity, he revises that to 20lb.
Nick-named "Big Muley," this 11.7 kg (25 pounds) Moon rock was the largest returned to Earth by Apollo astronauts. One side of Big Muley was peppered with meteoroid "zap pits."
Jack Schmitt falls while trying to pick up a lunar collection kit.
In his defense, the lunar EVA suit was top heavy and it was quite difficult to bend down to pick something up from the ground.
(Imagine being inside of a puffed up balloon at 4psi and trying to move at all!)
Tongs were used to pick up rock samples.
Scoops were used to collect soil samples.
Rakes were used to collect small pebbles.
Hammers were used to break small chips off large rocks
Core tubes were used to obtain samples from below the Moon's surface. These tubes were either 2 or 4 centimeters in diameter and were pounded into the surface with a hammer. Such core tubes reached a maximum depth of about 70 centimeters, requiring about 50 hammer blows.
To obtain material from greater depths, an electric drill was used on Apollos 15, 16, and 17.
This drill collected a core that was 2 centimeters in diameter and up to 3 meters deep
Individual samples were stored in small sample bags.
Individual sample bags were collected into larger sample collection bags for transport back to the lunar module.
These large bags could be attached to an astronaut's backpack (as shown here) or to the lunar rover.
For return to Earth, the samples were stowed in storage boxes
The gloved hand gives an indication of size. This box also contained the Solar Wind Composition experiment (not shown) and two core tubes for subsurface samples (not shown).
Containers such as this one were made to store and transport moonrocks upon return to Earth. They were made of stainless steel which would not contaminate the precious specimens that they contained... and they were made strong, heavy, and secured, to keep the specimens from contaminating the Earth with possible alien pathogens.
Dr. Grant Heikan examines lunar material in sieve from sample container
In effect, the cabin was just barely big enough to hold two suited astronauts. When the LM crewmen were getting ready to go outside and had their suits pressurized and were wearing their backpacks, even turning in place required careful coordination.
.
The lunar samples were stored inside the ascent stage of the lunar module for the trip back to lunar orbit.
A conveyor system, shown here, was available but the astronauts generally found it easier to carry the rock boxes up the lunar module's ladder
Needless to say, space inside the cabin was extremely limited, especially when the astronauts were wearing their bulky spacesuits.
The Apollo Lunar Sample Return Container (ALSRC) was an aluminum box with a triple seal manufactured by the Nuclear Division of Union Carbide. It was used on Apollo lunar landing missions to preserve a lunar-like vacuum around the samples and protect them from the shock environment of the return flight to earth. An aluminum mesh liner helped absorb impacts. Prior to flight, each box was loaded with sample container bags and other sample containment devices. The "rock box" was then closed under vacuum so that it would not contain pressure greater than the lunar ambient pressure. On the moon, while samples were being loaded, the seals were protected by a Teflon film and a cloth cover which were removed just prior to closing the box.Two ALSRC's were used on each mission.
Originally posted by FoosM
....
Originally posted by CHRLZ
Originally posted by FoosM
....
I've clipped out the stuff that wasn't ignorant pointless drivel.
Apollo went to the Moon as advertised.
Considering the Apollo 17 crew were supposedly in space for about 2 weeks, don't you think their arms would look a little less tanned?
However, its still bulky material to work with. So how do you get it into the Ascent stage of the LM?
Dimensions:
Overall: 8 in. tall x 1 ft. 7 in. wide x 11 3/4 in. deep, 19.4 lb. (20.3 x 48.3 x 29.8cm, 8.8kg)
Originally posted by DJW001
Seriously now, FoosM, do you see anything here that doesn't check out... perfectly?
Originally posted by DJW001
However, its still bulky material to work with. So how do you get it into the Ascent stage of the LM?
Meet my little friend, the Lunar Equipment Conveyor:
Great so lets so those photo and videos of the astronauts climbing up the ladder into the LM while carrying all those samples.
A conveyor system, shown here, was availablebut
the astronauts generally found it easier to carry the rock boxes up the lunar module's ladder
we had the 2 minutes blast give us enough force to make it to the moon
you know
no gravity in deep space
anyway
Ahhh... finally someone at least attempts to begin the discussion on this.
We can always count on DJ to at least make the effort.
Originally posted by theability
reply to post by Josephus23
we had the 2 minutes blast give us enough force to make it to the moon
you know
no gravity in deep space
anyway
HAHA no gravity in deep space my my my.
Maybe this is such things as the wrong questions or personal opinions.
Hey man, you need to get out some basic Astronomy books and re-read the gravity section the ask say that no gravity in deep space thing again, I bet you won't because your so wrong for saying that.
Shessh. No gravity in deep space I have heard it all in this thread now.
Originally posted by Josephus23i posted a while back about the radiation on the surface of the moon
and i think that people should think about that
and think about the amount of fuel
what some people will have you think is that
when we engaged in the translunar injection
from the rocketdyne J-2
rocket
we had the 2 minutes blast give us enough force to make it to the moon
you know
no gravity in deep space
anyway
and we had enough SPACE FOR THIS FUEL
and the computer(do you remember the size of computers in the 60's) and the bulky spacemen
and we made it there
landed and went back up to the orbiter SIX TIMES
and then had enough fuel to make it home
out of the gravity on the moon which is one sixth that of the earth
No rocket will reach the moon save by a miraculous discovery of an explosive far more energetic than any known. And even if the requisite fuel were produced, it would still have to be shown that the rocket machine would operate at 459 degrees below zero—the temperature of interplanetary space.
— Nikola Tesla, November 1928.
Landing and moving around the moon offers so many serious problems for human beings that it may take science another 200 years to lick them.
— Science Digest, August 1948.
With our present knowledge, we can respond to the challenge of stellar space flight solely with intellectual concepts and purely hypothetical analysis. Hardware solutions are still entirely beyond our reach and far, far away.
— Wernher von Braun, 'Can We Ever Go to the Stars?' Popular Science magazine, July 1963.
The odds are now that the United States will not be able to honour the 1970 manned-lunar-landing data set by Mr. Kennedy.
— New Scientist, 30 April 1964.
I picked these quotes specifically from a webpage that purports that we went to the moon
It seems funny to me that we accomplished this feet some 40 plus years ago
But even right up to the launch no one thought that it could be done
And for some reason we go a very few times
Do some great PR
that includes giving a dutch museum a piece of petrified wood as a moon rock