Moon time capsule

After 50 years of waiting, researchers began opening and examining a special sample of the moon last March.

Astronauts on the Apollo 17 mission hammered a cylinder into the remains of a landslide on the northern half of the Moon in 1972 and returned the soil sample safely to Earth. Now, researchers are beginning to uncover the secrets of this lunar history tube layer by layer.

It is not a matter of opening and turning. When the sample was taken, the temperature was very cold. So it is also possible to preserve lunar gases and volatiles. So it’s been waiting full of vacuum cleaners for 50 years, but recently a team of scientists from Johnson Space Center in Houston thought it was time.

But how do you deal with a jar full of valuable knowledge? First, CT scans and high-resolution 3D images of the contents were taken. The dry drill was also done several times to ensure nothing was lost during the opening. The powder is now ready for examination. It remains to be seen what it can tell us about current technology.

Read more: NASA scientists begin studying 50-year-old Apollo 17 frozen moon samples†