From the air shower we enter the Pristine Sample Laboratory Laboratory. It is important to note that the Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility is a working laboratory, not a museum. In this room, pristine lunar samples for research, for education, and for display are prepared for distribution to recipients located at 85 universities and institutions throughout the world. We presently have international customers in Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Japan, and Switzerland. Hundreds of scientists, professors, and students from all over the world attend the annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference at which new lunar and planetary research findings are discussed.

"Pristine" samples, or samples which have not been out of the laboratory since they were returned from the Moon, are processed in specially manufactured stainless steel cabinets filled with flowing nitrogen gas which has been carefully purified to remove water and oxygen. Before the samples were collected, they had been in a vacuum on or near the lunar surface for millions to billions of years. If the samples were exposed to the Earth's humid atmosphere, they would react with it. Small grains of iron in the lunar samples would combine with oxygen to form rust; glasses and minerals would combine with the water in air to form clays. Nitrogen gas is used in the cabinets because it provides an environment with minimum reaction to the samples.

Rubber gloves made of Neoprene, which are fitted to holes in the sides of the cabinets, let workers reach the samples inside the air-tight, sealed cabinets. The nitrogen gas pressure is slightly greater than the air pressure. Should a leak develop, nitrogen would rush out from the cabinet and prevent the air from entering and contaminating the samples. Since a serious leak could flood the laboratory with nitrogen gas, the oxygen level in the room air is carefully monitored for personnel safety. Because oxygen and water in air slowly permeate the rubber gloves and enter the cabinets, the nitrogen is kept flowing in order to prevent concentrations of these reactive gases from building up inside the cabinets. Automatic hourly testing of each cabinet assures that the water and oxygen concentrations are maintained at less than 20 molecules of oxygen and 50 molecules of water for every one million molecules of nitrogen.


After the earlier Apollo missions, NASA was more concerned about how the samples might contaminate the Earth than about how the samples would be contaminated by the Earth. To avoid cross-contamination of samples from different places on the Moon, samples from different missions are not processed together in the same cabinet, but one or more cabinets are designated for processing samples from a particular mission. When cabinets become dusty from extensive processing or are needed for processing samples from a different mission, they are cleaned using ultra-pure water.


The nitrogen cabinets are equipped with tools, containers, and other pieces equipment which have been specially cleaned and packaged in hermetically sealed bags. The materials which are deemed acceptable for the manufacturing of these items are carefully considered. The only materials which are allowed to touch the samples are aluminum, stainless steel and Teflon. Teflon gloves are worn over rubber gloves used for picking up rocks. Samples are packaged in Teflon bags, plastic vials, aluminum or stainless steel containers. Two hermetically sealed Teflon bags are placed on the outside of all containers with samples slated for storage or distribution to a Principal Investigator.

All sample processing is carefully documented in folders called data packs. Pieces which have been removed from the original sample are assigned new sample numbers, and the masses for all samples are accounted for to the nearest 10 milligrams. Photographs are taken of the samples before and after subdivision, and the orientations of new pieces relative to the original sample are recorded as accurately as possible.

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