SCIENCE: 50 Years Later, Precious Moon Samples Will Finally Be Opened.

During the Apollo missions, NASA smartly set aside some lunar materials knowing future scientists would likely be better equipped to analyze them. Now, nearly 50 years later, the space agency is giving a select group of researchers the extraordinary opportunity to study these unopened and untarnished samples.

Nine proposals to study unopened Apollo samples were selected by NASA under its Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis program, or ANGSA, according to a NASA Goddard press release. The lunar materials were collected during Apollo 15 (the fourth lunar mission, which began on July 26, 1971) and Apollo 17 (the sixth and final lunar mission, which commenced on December 7, 1972). Some of the returned samples were never opened to prevent possible contamination, while other lunar materials, after some initial processing, were re-sealed and placed in cold storage.

The point of all this was to ensure the integrity of lunar materials for later study, allowing future scientists—equipped with new technologies and new questions—to take a look. Given that no lunar materials have returned to Earth since 1972, this was a remarkably prescient idea.

The guys who ran Apollo were pretty sharp, and no one seemed to care what shirts they wore.

The real shame of this though is that it’s been nearly 50 years since we collected any Moon samples.