LIFE AND WORK AT
A MOON BASE

There will be lots to do at a lunar base. Geologists will study the Moon with the intensity and vigor they do on Earth, with emphasis on field studies. Astronomers will make magnificent observations of the universe. Solar scientists will study the solar wind directly and investigate past activity trapped in layers of regolith. Writers and artists will be inspired by a landscape so different from Earth’s. Life scientists will study how people adapt to a gravity field one-sixth as strong as Earth's, and figure out how to grow plants in lunar greenhouses. Engineers will investigate how to keep a complex facility operating continuously in a hostile environment. Mining and chemical engineers will determine how to extract resources from Moon rocks and regolith. The seemingly dry lunar surface contains plenty of the ingredients to support life at a Moon base (oxygen and hydrogen for water, nitrogen and carbon for the growth of plants), including the construction materials to build and maintain the base (regolith can be molded into bricks; iron, titanium, and aluminum can be smelted and forged into tools and building materials). It will be an exciting, high-tech, faraway place inhabited by adventurous souls. [See the Unit 3 activities beginning on Page 99.]

Where moon rocks hang out

Since arrival on Earth, lunar samples have been treated with the respect they deserve. Most of the treasure of Apollo is stored at the Lunar Curatorial Facility at the Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas. A small percentage is stored in an auxiliary facility at Brooks Air Force Base near San Antonio, Texas, placed there in case a disaster, such as a hurricane, befalls Houston and the samples are destroyed. Many small samples are also in the laboratories of investigators around the world, where enthusiastic scientists keep trying to wring out the Moon's secrets.

The Curatorial Facility is one of the cleanest places you'll ever see. To go inside, you must wear white suits, boots, hats, and gloves, outfits affectionately known as 'bunny suits.' Wipe a gloved hand on a stainless steel cabinet and you will not find a trace of dust because the air is filtered to remove potential contaminating particles.
The samples are stored in a large vault, and only one at a time is moved to a glove box. You can pick up the rocks by jamming your hands into a pair of the black rubber gloves, allowing you to turn a rock over, to sense its mass and density, to connect with it. A stereomicroscope allows you to look at it closely. If you decide you need a sample, and of course you have been approved to obtain one, then expert lunar sample processors take over. The sample is photographed before and after the new sample is chipped off. This is time consuming, but valuable to be sure we know the relationships of all samples to each other. In many cases, we can determine the orientation a specific part of a rock was in on the surface of the Moon before collection.

A select small number of pieces of the Moon are on display in public museums, and only three pieces can actually be touched. These so-called lunar "touchstones" were all cut from the same Apollo 17 basaltic rock. One touchstone is housed at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Another touchstone is at the Space Center Houston facility adjacent to the Johnson Space Center. A third touchstone is on long-term loan to the Museo de Las Ciencias at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Visitors to these exhibits marvel at the unique experience of touching a piece of the Moon with their bare hands.

Scientists as poets

Scientists do not view the world in purely objective ways. Each has biases and a unique way of looking at the world. Science is not done solely with piles of data, hundreds of graphs, or pages of equations. It is done with the heart and soul, too. Sometimes a scientist is moved to write about it in elegant prose like that written by Loren Eisley or in poetry, like the poem written by Professor Carlé Pieters of Brown University. Dr. Pieters holds her doctorate from MIT and is an expert in remote sensing of planetary surfaces. She is especially well known for her telescopic observations of the Moon. The poem first appeared in the frontispiece of Origin of the Moon, published by the Lunar and Planetary Institute.

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