Lunar Receiving Laboratory

[Music] in the Apollo Mission an important dividend for science will be samples of the moon's surface we have sent machines to photograph and probe the moon surface and they were highly complex engineering feats [Music] but in the final analysis they were still awkward groping [Music] machines by actually going to the Moon selecting and Gathering lunar materials and returning them to scientists on Earth man and space will make a very special contribution to our basic knowledge of the solar system of major importance to the scientific study of the material from the moon will be the lunar receiving laboratory located at the man spacecraft Center in Houston this laboratory will dominate our attention immediately following man's flight to the Moon here first to an almost totally bare room the astronauts their spacecraft and Equipment will come upon their [Music] return here investigation of the lunar materials will begin here materials will be prepared for delivery to scientists in the United States and abroad here data and knowledge will be amassed and [Music] [Applause] centralized but a first and major concern is for safety a consideration which led to a unique design and construction the laboratory will not only protect its test subjects from our Earth's environment but will also protect our Earth's environment from the test subjects until they are proven safe for example in these quarters the astronauts will endure several weeks of confinement and quarantine the objective is to make certain they have brought nothing back from the Moon which would contaminate the Earth an extremely remote possibility their time however will scarcely be wasted they will submit to extensive physical examinations and begin the historic reports on their flight to the Moon meanwhile work with the lunar materials which will weigh a total of perhaps 50 lb will have begun and seldom will an equal amount of any other material receive as much attention [Music] [Applause] collected with geologic hand tools designed especially for use on the lunar [Music] surface the materials will be packaged in aluminum containers these are designed to maintain inside the vacuum of space and to prevent contamination from the Earth's environment [Music] after unpackaging operations in Ultra Clean vacuum Chambers the samples must be proved biologically safe this will be done in a series of tests using animals kept in germfree surroundings as well as in normal environments other forms of life for example plant tissues and eggs will also be used in the biological tests many of the biological safety tests will take place in cabinets equipped with arm glove assemblies the cabinets enclose carefully regulated [Music] environments meanwhile the scientific work will have already begun as soon as the material samples are received sorted and classified scientists begin preliminary investigations they will study the physical chemical and minerological properties they will analyze the minute traces of gases emitted by inorganic and rare [Music] matter and by possible organic [Music] matter they will measure radioactive characteristics a job which must be undertaken as rapidly as possible to prevent loss of short- lived data for this there is a heavily shielded facility located 50 ft underground to help prevent interference from natural outside [Music] radiation in many ways the lunar receiving laboratory will serve as a major tool for the scientific investigations of material from the moon but the work here is only the beginning once preliminary investigations have been completed and samples have been classified and prepared for delivery they will be distributed to more than 100 scientists in Laboratories throughout this country in Europe in Canada in Japan answers to basic questions of science will begin to come forth where did the moon come from how was it Formed what is it made of how old is it does it have any rudimentary form of life these and many others it has been said in fact that scientists can do generations of work with the samples from a single Mission at the same time brand new questions of basic importance will be raised and these new questions will be just as significant as the answers because in knowing what to ask we will know how to plan our future exploration of space [Music]