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TheLunar Receiving Laboratory(LRL) was a facility atNASA'sLyndon B. Johnson Space Center(Building 37) that was constructed toquarantineastronautsand material brought back from theMoonduring theApollo programto reduce the risk ofback-contamination.After recovery at sea, crews fromApollo 11,Apollo 12,andApollo 14walked from theirhelicopterto theMobile Quarantine Facilityon the deck of anaircraft carrierand were brought to the LRL for quarantine. Samples of rock andregoliththat the astronauts collected and brought back were flown directly to the LRL and initially analyzed ingloveboxvacuum chambers.
The quarantine requirement was dropped forApollo 15and later missions.[1]The LRL was used for study, distribution, and safe storage of the lunar samples. Between 1969 and 1972, six Apollo space flight missions brought back 382 kilograms (842 pounds) of lunar rocks, core samples, pebbles, sand, and dust from the lunar surface—in all, 2,200 samples from six exploration sites.[2]Other lunar samples were returned to Earth by three automated Soviet spacecraft,Luna 16in 1970,Luna 20in 1972, andLuna 24in 1976, which returned samples totaling 300 grams (about 3/4 pound).
In 1976, some of the samples were moved toBrooks Air Force BaseinSan Antonio, Texas,for second-site storage. In 1979, aLunar Sample Laboratory Facilitywas built to serve as the chief repository for the Apollo samples: permanent storage in a physically secure and non-contaminating environment. The facility includes vaults for the samples and records, and laboratories for sample preparation and study.[3]The Lunar Receiving Laboratory building was later occupied by NASA's Life Sciences division, contained biomedical and environment labs, and was used for experiments involving human adaptation tomicrogravity.[4]
In September 2019, NASA announced that the Lunar Receiving Laboratory had not been used for two years and would be demolished.[5][6]
See also
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Notes
edit- ^Kent Carter (2001)."Moon Rocks and Moon Germs. A History of NASA's Lunar Receiving Laboratory".National Archives.RetrievedMarch 26,2023.
All crew quarantine requirements were waived after the flight of Apollo 14.
- ^"Lunar Rocks and Soils from Apollo Missions".NASA. March 31, 2022.RetrievedMarch 26,2023.
- ^"Lunar Sample Laboratory Tour".NASA. May 31, 2022.RetrievedMarch 26,2023.
- ^"Building on a Mission: The Lunar Receiving Laboratory".NASA. October 13, 2021.RetrievedMarch 26,2023.
- ^Stuckey, Alex (2019-09-20)."NASA to tear down building where Neil Armstrong, colleagues were quarantined after moon mission".Houston Chronicle.Retrieved2023-01-05.
- ^"NASA says 1969 moon landing lab to be demolished next year - The Washington Post".The Washington Post.2019-09-25. Archived fromthe originalon 2019-09-25.Retrieved2023-01-05.
External links
edit- Lunar Receiving Laboratory Project HistoryNASA/CR–2004–208938, 2004
- 25 Years of Curating Moon Rocks,Judy Allton
- Apollo Lunar Quarantine