Moon rocks from Apollo missions will be opened on 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11
FirstpostOf all the six mission, the Apollo 11 mission got back only 22 kilograms of moon rocks, the least amount of samples. Zeigler’s job is to preserve what the 12 moonwalkers brought back from 1969 through 1972 lunar samples totalling 842 pounds and ensure scientists get the best possible samples for study. “Fifty years later, we’re still learning new things … incredible,” said the lab’s Charis Krysher, holding a clear acrylic marble embedded with chips of Apollo 11 moon rock in her gloved hand. By studying the Apollo moon rocks, Zeigler said, scientists have determined the ages of the surfaces of Mars and Mercury, and established that Jupiter and the solar system’s other big outer planets likely formed closer to the sun and later migrated outward. Andrea Mosie, who’s worked with the Apollo moon rocks for 44 years and was a high school intern at Johnson Space Center in July 1969, remembers the Polaroid photos and handwritten notes once accompanying each sample.