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(music throughout) So I do remember
the first time I held a Moon sample.

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It was in a course at undergraduate level.

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I remember being in school
and a scientist came

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and gave a talk
and he actually brought a lunar meteorite.

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And at this point
he put a what we call a thin section

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so we could look down
the microscope at them.

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A thin section is actually a piece of rock
that's been sliced about

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the same thickness as a piece of hair
and shine light through it.

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And you can look at all the different
minerals that are in the rock.

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So there are actual meteorites

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that fall on earth
that are made of pieces of the moon.

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I remember
holding this piece of a lunar meteorite.

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It was it was pretty small.

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And I remember thinking, wow,
this is so small.

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We really need more of this.

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I remember that was my number one
thought was we need more of this.

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We need a lot more.

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I went home and I think I rang
every single person I knew.

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I definitely told my family a million
times, I don't think they were sick of me,

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but like they would definitely go away
and tell us something different now.

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But no, they weren't. They were they were

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over the moon as me.

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Pun intended.

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For the past

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50 years and counting,
generations of scientists like Dr.

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Natalie Curran have been probing rocks
brought back by Apollo astronauts,

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using increasingly sophisticated
technologies.

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We've learned that our moon is so closely
related to Earth

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that the two must have formed
from some of the same material.

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Moon Rocks showed the first evidence
that the moon has water,

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and they've even helped
in studying the history of the sun,

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which influenced the evolution of life.

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I work in the Mid-Atlantic

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Noble Gas Research Lab or MNGRL.

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You know, we're called Moon Girl Lab
because we work with lunar samples.

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But it's actually a fun name
because we're actually

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predominantly female scientists
that work in that.

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We are looking at
basically the history of lunar samples

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and being in this lab
we're basically rock detectives.

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So we're looking at how old the sample is
and what the samples made of.

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The reason why we want to answer
these questions

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is because they can tell us a lot
about how the this

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not only this sample formed,
but also how the moon formed

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or what the geological processes are that
are occurring on the surface of the moon.

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So working with the Apollo samples,

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I honestly I try to take the emotion
out of my lab work.

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It's very humbling.

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It goes over my head, you know,
to have a piece of the moon in my hands.

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I study the origins

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of organic matter in space.

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Organic matter is
what makes up all life on earth.

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Dr. Jose Aponte and his colleagues
are trying to figure out

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how the chemical ingredients for life
got to earth

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and whether they ended up
on any other planets or moons.

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Although there was never life on the moon,
it's an important place to study

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as a record of the events
such as asteroid collisions

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that shaped the solar system.

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Rocks on the moon are better preserved

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and far older than any rocks
we've found on earth.

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My job is integrating science
into human spaceflight.

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So how will we do science on the surface
of other planets with astronauts?

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We like to say that the moon is a witness
plate for the solar system.

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And it's it's really true.

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When you look at our planet here on Earth,
you see things that we all really like,

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a lot like vegetation and the oceans and,
you know, cities where people live.

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All of these things combined with the fact
that our planet is actually very active.

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Just look at plate tectonics,
which creates new crust,

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which destroys old crust.

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It's again what drives our planet
and the evolution of our planet.

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These are all things that we're
very appreciative of and see every day,

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but they're things that actually obscure
the geologic record.

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When you go to the surface of the moon,
however, you have four

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plus billion years of history
preserved on the surface of the moon

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by looking at one rock.

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You can learn a lot,
you know, just by using your own two eyes

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to interrogate
a rock and make descriptions about it.

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You can learn something
about how that rock got there,

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how the landscape around you got there,
and you can start to really make broad

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interpretations about the area around
you just by looking at literally one rock.

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Then imagine
taking that rock back to a lab,

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which you can use these really high

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resolution lab techniques
that we have to peer inside the rock

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to get a look at what you can't see
with the naked eye to start to understand

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how just how old that rock is, how long
it's been sitting there on the surface.

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So it's really exciting to think that this
some small little sample can tell us

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a lot about different processes
that are not just going on

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from the local region
where the sample was picked up

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but actually from the whole of the moon
as well by studying just one rock,

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you can learn about potentially billions
of years of solar system history.

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And so imagine the scientific discoveries
that we made with

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the couple hundred pounds of rocks
we brought back from the Apollo missions

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during six missions from 1969 to 1972.

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Apollo astronauts have brought back
842 pounds of rocks,

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pebbles, sand and dust from the moon.

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Today, those samples are carefully stored

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in a special facility
at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

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The same facility will store the rocks
to be collected by Artemis astronauts.

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So I work in what's called the Astro
Materials Acquisition and Curation Office.

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We just call it
the curation office for short.

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So all of the Apollo moon, rocks,
meteorites, all of our sample return

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missions from asteroids, from comets,
all of those samples come here to Houston

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and it's our office job
to take care of those samples

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and make sure that they're available
to the scientific community to study.

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The Apollo astronauts
all landed near the moon's equator.

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Samples from
there have been instrumental to science.

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But scientists want to explore
other locations on the moon.

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Otherwise, it would be like landing
in the Arizona desert on Earth

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and assuming

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that the conditions discovered there
reflect those found on the entire planet.

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Compared with Apollo, Artemis astronauts
will carry out

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a very different mission
in a drastically different environment.

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They will venture to the South Pole,
a region

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that has water, ice,
and could be rich in other resources.

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The South Pole is a land of extremes.

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Temperatures
there can reach -400 degrees Fahrenheit.

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I would actually even say curation starts
as soon as the mission starts.

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So one of the things that I'm talking to,
the EVA engineers about a lot

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and the astronauts is how to prepare for
when they're going to go to the moon.

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For example, we know that we're going to
collect some rocks.

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What are we going to put?

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What container
are we going to put those rocks in?

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Are we going to put them in a can?

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Are we going to put them in a bag?

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And we need to understand that,
because for some of these samples,

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they are very sensitive to whether
they're exposed to metal or plastic.

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And those are designed decisions
that have to be made years

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before the mission even flies.

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They've got to be super strict.

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The astronauts on the surface, for me,
I'd be like, you know, I'd be like a kid

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in a candy store and just want to like
I want to take everything.

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And, you know,
you can only go a certain amount of time.

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I'd probably run out of oxygen me
when I'd be walking and forget.

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It's often said that, you know,

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exploration is part of human nature
and I definitely agree with that.

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I mean, even as a small kid,
you know, going out in my backyard and,

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you know, picking up dirt
and sticking my hands in the creek

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and understanding what the little animals
and plants were all around me

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was something that, you know,
I didn't have taught to me by that age.

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It's just something that really comes
naturally to, I think, most people.

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And the same is is true
on a much bigger scale.

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The desire to explore the solar system
and learn more about,

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you know, what we can look up at
in the night sky and see is really

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a fundamental part of human nature.

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If we want to visit Mars,
if we want to explore the solar system,

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or if
we think about going to other planets,

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we first must learn how to operate

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on the moon.

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Getting ready to conduct science
on the moon and to identify scientifically

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interesting surface
features takes a lot of practice.

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On the next NASA Explorers - Space School,
how is NASA

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preparing astronauts
to think and act like geologists?