Moon truthers look away! NASA has announced its plans to open a sealed tube of collected rocks and soil from the moon that was collected by the Apollo 17 mission 50 years ago.
When Apollo 17 landed on the moon in 1972, astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison "Jack" Schmitt were tasked with collecting sediment and rocks to be studied on Earth. To do so, the pair hammered a pair of 14-inch tubes into the moon's surface.
Once the tubes were full, Cernan and Schmitt vacuum-sealed one of the tubes and brought the other back in a regular container to be studied.
Scientists at the Johnson Space Center in Houston will now carefully open the sealed tube, which has remained in its container since the pair closed it on the moon, according to a press release.
Lori Glaze, the director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, shared that the tubes have been kept sealed so that today's technology could be utilized when examining their contents, a press release said.
The first tube, which was unsealed, was opened in 2019, and NASA reported that the moon's soil had been preserved, providing insight into different geological events that take place on its surface.
However, NASA scientists are hoping that the sealed tube will contain more than just rocks and soil, but instead, they hope it will also contain gasses.
NASA shared that the tube could have a substance known as volatiles. Like water, ice, and carbon dioxide, the substance evaporates at average temperatures, and when they were collected, the bottom of the tube was reportedly extremely cold.
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In order to make sure the gasses don't escape when the tube is opened, scientists will use a tool called the "Apollo can opener," which was developed by the European Space Agency.
Along with the can opener, a device called a manifold will also be used. The manifold was designed by scientists at Washington University in St. Louis.
The process will now allow for scientists to trap whatever gasses come out of the tube, as it is expected to be minimal, and then use modern mass spectrometry technology to analyze the gas. There is also a possibility of the gas being divided for other researchers to examine.
"A lot of people are getting excited," Ryan Zeigler, NASA's Apollo sample curator, said in the release. "University of New Mexico's Chip Shearer proposed the project over a decade ago, and for the past three years, we've had two great teams developing the unique equipment to make it possible."
The tubes will be opened today at 5:30 p.m. CST and those interested can watch on NASA’s social media channels.
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