WEBVTT FILE 1 00:00:08.241 --> 00:00:08.541 So we 2 00:00:08.541 --> 00:00:10.877 received samples from the Apollo 17 mission 3 00:00:12.479 --> 00:00:15.415 which were return to Earth in December of 1972. 4 00:00:15.448 --> 00:00:17.717 So nearly 50 years ago. 5 00:00:17.717 --> 00:00:19.886 Basically we collected on the moon and brought back, 6 00:00:20.553 --> 00:00:23.790 then they were frozen within about a month of being returned. 7 00:00:23.790 --> 00:00:25.825 So no one's ever looked at them since. 8 00:00:26.092 --> 00:00:27.761 It's very exciting. 9 00:00:35.769 --> 00:00:38.038 Curation facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center 10 00:00:38.338 --> 00:00:41.908 sent us the samples and they did have to do some special efforts to keep them cold 11 00:00:42.142 --> 00:00:43.209 because we wanted them to stay frozen. 12 00:00:43.209 --> 00:00:46.312 So they had a special cold shipping box with panels 13 00:00:46.312 --> 00:00:49.416 that were frozen in a very cold freezer and a chunk of dry ice. 14 00:00:51.117 --> 00:00:53.486 We picked it up from the receiving office here at Goddard 15 00:00:55.522 --> 00:00:58.391 opened it up, pulled the samples out and stuck them straight in our freezer 16 00:00:58.391 --> 00:00:59.492 and locked them up safely. 17 00:01:01.594 --> 00:01:02.495 So these 18 00:01:02.495 --> 00:01:05.432 frozen samples were actually collected from a region on the moon 19 00:01:05.432 --> 00:01:07.434 that was in shadow from the sun. 20 00:01:07.434 --> 00:01:09.702 So it was basically a large boulder. 21 00:01:09.736 --> 00:01:11.504 In the near future, we're going back to the moon 22 00:01:11.504 --> 00:01:13.306 and hopefully going to the polar regions of the moon 23 00:01:13.306 --> 00:01:15.375 where some of these regions are in permanent shadow 24 00:01:15.642 --> 00:01:18.078 and they don't see the sun, you know, they're cold. 25 00:01:18.378 --> 00:01:22.215 These particular samples are really great analogs for what we might expect 26 00:01:22.215 --> 00:01:24.517 to see in the polar regions when we go back. 27 00:01:25.685 --> 00:01:28.321 So we actually started last week to process the samples. 28 00:01:28.321 --> 00:01:33.126 So the samples we got are basically dirt, lunar dirt, and we basically made "Moon 29 00:01:33.126 --> 00:01:34.027 tea" out of them. 30 00:01:34.027 --> 00:01:34.828 So "Moon tea" 31 00:01:34.828 --> 00:01:38.698 is what we call it when we pull out the soluble compounds from the soil. 32 00:01:38.932 --> 00:01:42.669 And so we basically take the lunar sample, seal it up with a torch in a little 33 00:01:42.669 --> 00:01:46.573 glass test tube full of water, stick it in an oven overnight and boil it. 34 00:01:46.573 --> 00:01:49.442 And we're just pulling out those soluble compounds that we care about 35 00:01:49.709 --> 00:01:51.644 the same way you'd make tea with boiling water at home. 36 00:01:53.780 --> 00:01:56.182 What we're trying to do is answer some questions 37 00:01:56.182 --> 00:02:00.253 about the history this sample experienced at the surface of the moon. 38 00:02:00.353 --> 00:02:02.655 The surface of the moon is a really hostile environment. 39 00:02:02.989 --> 00:02:05.658 You know, it's not like here on Earth where we have this 40 00:02:05.658 --> 00:02:09.629 beautiful atmosphere that protects us from the nasties of space. 41 00:02:09.662 --> 00:02:13.533 So we have particles from the sun that are continuously hitting the 42 00:02:13.533 --> 00:02:14.367 surface of the moon. 43 00:02:14.367 --> 00:02:15.869 And we've got galactic 44 00:02:15.869 --> 00:02:19.539 cosmic rays that are coming in and penetrating into the surface as well. 45 00:02:19.639 --> 00:02:23.643 They actually create noble gases in these particles. 46 00:02:23.676 --> 00:02:26.012 So you can imagine that there's none to begin with. 47 00:02:26.312 --> 00:02:29.649 And then as they get exposed to this space environment, 48 00:02:29.916 --> 00:02:33.419 they kind of get more and more buildup of noble gases. 49 00:02:33.820 --> 00:02:38.158 And our technique is to actually unlock those noble gases from the sample, 50 00:02:38.324 --> 00:02:42.662 a measure of them, so we can come up with what we call a cosmic ray exposure age. 51 00:02:43.029 --> 00:02:47.400 So it's basically how long this sample has been sat at the surface being exposed. 52 00:02:47.567 --> 00:02:49.335 It's basically getting a "space tan." 53 00:02:50.703 --> 00:02:51.971 Say, 50 years ago, 54 00:02:51.971 --> 00:02:55.074 this same technique, which is called the Noble Gas Mass Spectrometry 55 00:02:55.108 --> 00:02:59.579 would probably need anywhere, you know, tens to hundreds of milligrams 56 00:02:59.579 --> 00:03:03.183 to do the same thing that we now do with a couple of milligrams. 57 00:03:03.950 --> 00:03:06.553 It's really special to be part of this, and particularly 58 00:03:06.553 --> 00:03:11.925 because I can look back at the papers and the processes that the curation office 59 00:03:11.925 --> 00:03:15.662 and the scientists in the 1970s thought about and they put so much care 60 00:03:15.662 --> 00:03:18.031 into preserving these samples for future science 61 00:03:18.331 --> 00:03:20.533 to making sure that they were going to be at their, 62 00:03:20.533 --> 00:03:23.303 you know, the best conditions so that as we develop new techniques, 63 00:03:23.570 --> 00:03:27.006 we're able to go and look at these samples and get new answers 64 00:03:27.273 --> 00:03:29.375 to the science questions that were being asked. 65 00:03:29.375 --> 00:03:32.612 You know, I'm still studying these samples 50 years later 66 00:03:32.879 --> 00:03:35.515 for the from the Apollo mission, the original Apollo missions 67 00:03:35.815 --> 00:03:38.885 and you know, you don't know what's going to be in another 50 years, 68 00:03:38.885 --> 00:03:42.722 but I'm still a part of the Apollo dream of going to the moon 69 00:03:42.722 --> 00:03:44.090 and bringing samples back. 70 00:03:44.090 --> 00:03:47.560 So the fact that we have Artemis now is amazing. 71 00:03:47.560 --> 00:03:50.230 Like having our own Artemis generation is really exciting. 72 00:03:50.330 --> 00:03:53.666 I just can't wait to see people go back to the moon.