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<!DOCTYPE HTML>
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<title>Chariots for Apollo, Appendix E</title>
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<h1>Appendix E<br>Apollo 11 Lunar Samples</h1>
<p>
Three categories of samples were brought back by the <i>Apollo 11</i>
crew: contingency, bulk, and documented (or core) samples. Neil
Armstrong collected contingency samples first - about one kilogram of
surface material - being careful to get far enough away from the lunar
module that the soil would not have been contaminated by the residue
from the descent engine exhaust. He sealed this sample in a plastic
bag.<p>
For the second category, the bulk sample, one of the two special rock
boxes was filled, using a scoop. Not much attention was given to varying
selection, since the objective was merely to collect an adequate amount
of material for investigation upon return to the earth. But even here,
Armstrong did better than expected, gathering 11 rocks of more than a
hundred grams each (the largest weighing nearly a kilogram) some
distance away from the base of the lander.<p>
When the activity outside the lunar module fell 15 minutes behind
schedule, the lunar sample investigators back on earth worried that the
crew might not be able to obtain the documented sample, the third
category. Fortunately, the smooth functioning of the life support system
and the low metabolic usage of the pilots permitted the extension of the
extravehicular period. While Edwin Aldrin collected the two core samples
(to study the stratification of subsurface material), Armstrong
hurriedly gathered 25 more rock specimens, using tongs to pick them
up.<p>
The two boxes were sealed and placed in the lunar module, transferred to
the command module after the docking, pulled out on the deck of the
aircraft carrier, put in the mobile quarantine facility, and flown to
Houston, arriving at the Lunar Receiving Laboratory on 25 July 1969.<p>
The bulk and documented samples were placed within a double biological
barrier (vacuum chamber and special cabinets), which made handling and
working with the materials difficult. (Contingency sample material was
put in a nitrogen cabinet, where working conditions were not so
restrictive.) Ordinarily simple laboratory tasks, such as photographing
and weighing, were very complex. But the boxes were opened in the vacuum
chamber and the rocks were examined, described, photographed, weighed,
and chipped. More than 21 kilograms of samples were brought back:
one-third in rock fragments of one centimeter or more in diameter and
two-thirds in smaller particulate material (soil).<p>
Preliminary work on the samples began in the laboratory on 26 July 1969,
and specimens of lunar materials were released to more than 140
principal investigators on 12 September. During the 50-day interim, the
set period of quarantine, members of NASA's Preliminary Examination Team
(among them, E. M. Shoemaker, N. G. Bailey, R. M. Batson, D. H. Dahlem,
T. H. Foss, Maurice Grolier, E. N. Goddard, M. H. Hait, H. E. Holt, K.
B. Larson, J. J. Rennilson, G. G. Schaber, David Schleicher, H. H.
Schmitt, R. L. Sutton, G. A. Swann, A. C. Waters, and Mareta West)
tested the materials.<p>
The team's summary report stated that an unexplained erosion process,
"unlike any process so far observed on earth," on the lunar
surface - shown in photographs from the Ranger, Orbiter, and Surveyor
programs - had been confirmed during examination of the samples in the
laboratory.<p>
Chemical composition of the fines (powdered material) and igneous rocks
(fire-made), according to the report, was different from that of any
known terrestrial rock. The team was also of the opinion that there was
a "good chance that the time of crystallization of some of the
Apollo 11 rocks may date back to times earlier than the oldest rocks on
earth."<p>
<i> Apollo 11</i> had landed in the southwestern part of Mare
Tranquillitatis, 0.67 degrees north latitude and 24.39 degrees east
longitude. This region is crossed by relatively faint rays, spreading
out from large craters in that sector of the moon. There is a
possibility that these rays might contain fragments from Craters
Theophilus, Alfraganus, and Tycho - although the closest of these,
Alfraganus, is 160 kilometers away.<p>
At the landing site, particles ranged from those too small to be seen
with a naked eye to two-thirds of a meter in diameter. The surface
material formed a layer called the lunar regolith (mantle), porous and
weakly coherent on the surface but more densely packed underneath. The
bulk of the mantle in the landing area was of fine particles, although
there were rock fragments on top of and in the soil.<p>
Around the lunar module, the crew observed that the rocks were varied in
shape and that most of them were embedded in the soil to some degree. A
majority of the rocks examined had rounded tops, but the bottoms of
these same rocks usually had either flat areas or irregular angular
shapes. To Armstrong, one rock (not brought back) resembled a
distributor cap. He dislodged it with a kick and saw that the buried
portion was larger than the exposed end and was angular in shape.<p>
The evaluation team used the term "rock" for any fragment
larger than one centimeter in diameter and "fines" for
anything smaller. It divided the samples into four types:<p>
<ul>
<li>A. Fine-grained vesicular (with small cavities or bubbles probably
formed by gas) crystalline igneous rock.
<li>B. Medium-grained vuggy (having larger cavities than in the
vesicular samples) crystalline igneous rock.
<li>C. Breccia (fine materials embedded with sharp fragments), a mixture
of different rock types, minerals, and glass.
<li>D. Fines (crushed powder).</ul>
<p>
According to the team, the crystalline rocks were volcanic in origin,
with pyrogenic mineral assemblages (produced by heat) and gas cavities.
The samples contained clinopyrozene, plagioclase, ilemenite, troilite,
iron, and olivine. Two surface features that appeared to be common to
all rocks were small pits lined with glass and glass spatters not
necessarily associated with the pits. Moreover, the exterior of the
rocks was lighter in color than the interior, which indicated to the
team a microfracturing process of the surface crystals.<p>
The glassy deposits were interesting to the crew and to the
investigators. On the moon, Armstrong said, the glass looked like balls
of solder that had hit the surface in a fluid state and then hardened.
He said the glass appeared to have a metallic luster with multicolored
reflections. In the laboratory, the team observed that some glass
particles (the samples ranged in size from 10 millimeters to less than
10 microns) were colorless and others were brown, red, green, or black.
The brown were the most abundant.<p>
One noticeable feature of the rocks was the rounding of one or more
edges and corners. In the softer materials, the breccias, rounding was
more pronounced than on the harder crystalline rocks. There were coarser
grains poking out of the breccia formations, indicating that the surface
had earlier been surrounded by finer grains that had subsequently
eroded.<p>
Neither core sample showed any signs of stratification. One of the two
did have a lighter zone about six centimeters from the top, but a
megascopic (magnified) examination revealed little difference in the
lighter and darker materials.<p>
During the preliminary examination, the team conducted microscopic
studies, trying to find any living, previously living, or fossilized
material. No such material was found in any case. Some of the samples
were subjected to germ-free mice, fish, quail, shrimp, oysters, other
invertebrates, tissue cultures, insects, plants, and paramecia. There
was no evidence that any pathogens were present.
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