From the Sea of Tranquility to Mount Everest and soon to the International Space Station, this is going to be one well-traveled rock.
A moon rock collected during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission will be carried to the International Space Station by space shuttle Endeavour next month.
The lunar sample, collected from the Sea of Tranquility, will be displayed inside the new Tranquility module, the last major U.S. addition to the station before the shuttle fleet retires later this year.
Alongside the moon rock will be a piece of Mt. Everest, collected by former NASA astronaut Scott Parazynski, who brought the moon rock with him during his climb up the world's highest mountain - and came down with a piece from Everest.
On Wednesday, Parazynski will present both rocks to the Endeavour mission's commander, George Zamka.
Endeavour is scheduled to blast off on a 13-day mission at 4:39 a.m. Feb. 7.
About the Image: This Apollo 16 lunar sample "moon rock" was collected by Astronaut John Young, commander of the mission, about 15 meters southwest of the landing site. This rock weighs 128 gramms when returned to Earth. The sample is a polymict breccia. This rock, like all lunar highland breccias, is very old, about 3,900,000,000 years older than 99.99% of all earth surface rocks. Source: NASA
10 comments:
It's this sort of silliness that makes NASA such a joke. Please someone, tell me how this stunt advances science or justifies spending taxpayer money. NASA has turned itself into a vast public-relations organization ... with half-vast execution.
So many good people and so little purpose. End the shuttle, shut down NASA, and let serious space exploration start up again only when someone comes along with a genuine pioneer spirit, not this glib showboating. Screw moon rocks.
It's interesting that the moon is so much older than the Earth. Best estimate I've heard on Earth's age is 30,000 to 50,000 years.
So the rock in the picture is NOT the rock that will travel. They're from different missions.
What a stupid idea! Give the rock to a museum in some big city to encourage young people about space.
Gudgeon the curmudgeon...
the original moon rock was on display at the american embassy in Wellington, New Zealand for years.....in the mid seventies
Er 30,000 to 50,000 years.! Get real please. The earth is at the very least 3.5 Billion years old.Yes you heard me right thats Billions not thousands of years.
Did you also know the moon was formed by a collision between earth and a mars sized body,very soon after earth first coalessed together. Earth was still molten at that point.
Whats wrong with taking a 128 gram bit of moon rock to up the ISS.It's tiny insignificant.!!
The moon rock is older than most earth rocks because the earth is much more geologically active and rocks are constantly being weathered away and subducted into the mantle, while new rock is formed at volcanoes and midocean ridges. The moon rock is not older than the earth itself, which is over 4 billion years old.
What's an extra pound or two. It's only tax dollars paying for the trip.
Why? I agree with Grudgeon, what does this accomplish?
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