Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in ... - The Black Vault

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Project Apollo: Americans to the Moon
Lunar “Gardening”
Geological evidence of lunar surface turnover as this applies to Apollo 11
and 12 sites persuades us against the existence at these places of a protected region
containing at least some water and organic matter, and therefore a possible abode
for lunar organisms. Finally, mineralogical findings and evidence from isotope
dating indicate a kind of sample heterogeneity which could best be explained by
assuming transport of substantial amounts of material onto the mare, presumably
from the neighboring highlands. It seems quite possible or even likely that in the
Apollo 11 and 12 samples, several percent may represent highland material. Even
so, it would hardly be permissible to generalize from knowledge of these two sites
to the many particular local environments to be found on the moon. Much of the
moon is as yet unknown and thus predictions of biological significance about the
landing site of Apollo 13 may be in error.
Lunar Quarantine Program
We note that the Apollo 11 and 12 samples were in all likelihood from
the upper surfaces of lava beds. It is therefore not surprising that the samples
from both areas appear sterile. Any possible pre-existing life would have been
destroyed by processes which created these formations, and the likelihood of
reinoculation from other (highland?) areas might have been negligible. On or
near the surface, radiation and temperature extremes probably preclude growth
and perhaps even survival of live organisms. In any case, other Apollo landing
sites are apt to have quite different and new chemical characteristics. Even the
two mare sites, originally expected to be much the same, have turned out to be
surprisingly different. It is surely unwise to generalize from this limited Apollo
sampling and it seems to most of us that the new information gained from past
Apollo missions is insufficient to justify a substantial change in lunar quarantine
policy applicable to the Apollo 13 mission which is targeted for a highland landing
site. We therefore endorse the policy established by the ICBC which asserts that
each time a substantially new type of lunar environment is visited or sampled a
maximum back-contamination hazard obtains and whatever quarantine measures
have been agreed upon for that circumstances become fully applicable.
Quarantine of Lunar Samples
The overriding reason for continuing the quarantine of the astronauts
and the lunar samples returned from the Apollo 13 mission is the possibility that
materials that have not been exposed on the lunar surface for long periods will be
returned in the lower portion of a drill core sample. An additional but secondary
reason for continuing the quarantine is the planned return of materials that differ
significantly in composition, age and origin from the Apollo 11 and 12 samples. In
previous missions the sample chosen for the biological protocol was selected to be
representative of all the returned rocks and soil. Detailed study of these rock and
soil samples have not shown us that there is little variation among the rock types.
The requirement of pooled test samples has resulted in severe time constraints in
the preliminary examinations of the lunar samples. Handling lunar samples in the
LRL under quarantine restrictions precludes some desirable operations, introduces
chemical contamination of the samples, and is responsible for harming delicate