Houston: Inside a locked vault at Johnson Space Center is treasure few have seen and fewer have touched. The restricted lab is home to hundreds of pounds of moon rocks collected by Apollo astronauts close to a half-century ago. And for the first time in decades, NASA is about to open some of the pristine samples and let geologists take a crack at them with 21st-century technology.
What better way to mark this summer’s 50th anniversary of humanity’s first footsteps on the moon than by sharing a bit of the lunar loot. “It’s sort of a coincidence that we’re opening them in the year of the anniversary,” explained NASA’s Apollo sample curator Ryan Zeigler, covered head to toe in a white protective suit with matching fabric boots, gloves and hat. “But certainly the anniversary increased the awareness and the fact that we’re going back to the moon.”
With the golden anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s feat fast approaching their lunar module Eagle landed July 20, 1969, on the Sea of Tranquility the moon is red-hot again.
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