WEBVTT 00:00:03.680 --> 00:00:07.520 We're taking a deep dive into the world of moon rocks and the mind-blowing 00:00:07.520 --> 00:00:13.200 technology that NASA uses to study these remarkable rocks from space... next, on Real World. 00:00:13.200 --> 00:00:21.417 [Music] 00:00:21.417 --> 00:00:27.160 The Moon, our closest celestial neighbor, has fascinated humans for centuries. Thanks to 00:00:27.160 --> 00:00:32.360 NASA's Apollo missions, we have been able to bring back rock samples from the Moon and study them in 00:00:32.360 --> 00:00:38.440 detail. But, how many samples were collected and what do we know about them? Across the six Apollo 00:00:38.440 --> 00:00:43.680 missions they collected 2,196 individually numbered samples. There are so many different 00:00:43.680 --> 00:00:47.960 types of sample that they brought back. The biggest division is rocks versus soil, so they brought back 00:00:47.960 --> 00:00:52.880 about 2/3 rock and about 1/3 soil. Within each of those divisions you have different types 00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:56.880 of rocks. You have rocks that are what we call igneous - they form from molten lava. And then we 00:00:56.880 --> 00:01:01.560 have rocks that are sedimentary that form through impact processes and so each of those answers 00:01:01.560 --> 00:01:05.560 different questions about the Moon and then with the soils we brought back surface soils and deep 00:01:05.560 --> 00:01:10.840 soils and deep, deep soils and each of those tells us something different about solar system and 00:01:10.840 --> 00:01:15.560 lunar history. When we talk about soil on the Moon, it's really what we call regolith and the 00:01:15.560 --> 00:01:21.680 difference is soil involves a chemical process. So soil on Earth has worms in it, it has water 00:01:21.680 --> 00:01:26.480 there's a chemical breakdown of the material into soil. Moon doesn't have any of that. The Moon is 00:01:26.480 --> 00:01:31.720 entirely a physical process and so we call that a regolith but most people think of it as soil. Math 00:01:31.720 --> 00:01:37.080 is used every day at every level when we curate the samples and when people study the samples. At 00:01:37.080 --> 00:01:42.200 the most basic we have to keep track of the mass so we have to be able to add and subtract as we 00:01:42.200 --> 00:01:47.400 we started with a kilogram of sample and then we subtracted off 100 milligrams to send to you now 00:01:47.400 --> 00:01:51.560 how much do we have left so that's very basic but it's very important because it's what lets 00:01:51.560 --> 00:01:56.120 us know how much we have left. We've also used math to calculate the density of a rock and so 00:01:56.120 --> 00:02:00.640 so density equals the mass of something divided by the volume of that of the material you're weighing. 00:02:00.640 --> 00:02:04.760 So if you know how much it weighs and you know how big it is then you can figure out the density. So 00:02:04.760 --> 00:02:10.000 the normal way to calculate the density of a rock is to actually just to weigh it and then you need 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:14.560 to figure out the volume of the rock and you could figure out the volume of a rock by using 00:02:14.560 --> 00:02:19.160 um a laser 3D scanner and in fact this is done quite commonly on terrestrial samples uh where 00:02:19.160 --> 00:02:22.880 you put the rock and you scan it with a laser and it gives you a very precise volume and then 00:02:22.880 --> 00:02:26.840 you weigh it and then the density is relatively straightforward to figure out after that you just 00:02:26.840 --> 00:02:31.520 divide the mass by the volume and there's your density. Once the scientists get the samples they 00:02:31.520 --> 00:02:37.360 use math in everything they do. Whoa! There are so many different types of samples available for 00:02:37.360 --> 00:02:42.360 researchers to study and so many different ways for them to study them, but how do we protect 00:02:42.360 --> 00:02:47.600 these samples and how do we make sure that they are not contaminated with particles from Earth? 00:02:47.600 --> 00:02:54.280 We're working in a clean room for the fact that we need to keep the samples that came from the Moon 00:02:54.280 --> 00:02:59.520 in the same pristine state that they were in when they were collected. It's important to use a clean 00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:06.120 room because we want to make sure that what's being analyzed is actually from the Moon versus 00:03:06.120 --> 00:03:12.760 analyzing what's actually on Earth. There were six missions that the astronauts brought back 842 lbs 00:03:12.760 --> 00:03:20.960 of rocks, 382 kg of rocks, are processed in nitrogen-filled cabinets in the Lunar Lab. And we process them 00:03:20.960 --> 00:03:29.200 in that environment so that we're not contaminating. The Lunar Lab is actually a ISO 6 lab; we have a 00:03:29.200 --> 00:03:36.320 Return Processing Lab that's actually ISO 7. Those ISO numbers, or government numbers, saying the 00:03:36.320 --> 00:03:42.160 cleanliness of laboratories. There's procedures step by step in order to enter the laboratory. 00:03:42.160 --> 00:03:50.280 We actually don uh hat, booties, gloves, bunny suit. These rooms are all pressurized so that the clean 00:03:50.280 --> 00:03:56.040 air is flowing outward and dirty air doesn't go in. Who ever would have thought that a rock would 00:03:56.040 --> 00:04:01.800 need to be so clean? Now that we know about the different types of Moon rocks that we have and 00:04:01.800 --> 00:04:07.120 how we protect them from contamination, what kind of math is used to help curate and process these 00:04:07.120 --> 00:04:13.680 lunar artifacts? When a sample is processed, the database has the original weight that 00:04:13.680 --> 00:04:20.240 was given when the sample came back, so that mass is recorded in the database. So once we weigh the 00:04:20.240 --> 00:04:26.480 sample it has to be within the balance tolerance. That's where our math is involved. NASA waited 00:04:26.480 --> 00:04:33.640 50 years to open up the samples that they had on reserve until someone would put in a request that was 00:04:33.640 --> 00:04:41.640 different using updated and different technology because technology definitely has changed from the 00:04:41.640 --> 00:04:49.520 70s to now. With the CT scanning, you can look at a sample and you will actually see what's inside of 00:04:49.520 --> 00:04:55.840 a sample. If it's a large class if they're small classes before you even decide I want to break 00:04:55.840 --> 00:05:02.840 this rock, you know what's inside of the rock. These rocks are out of this world! Seriously, they're 00:05:02.840 --> 00:05:10.560 from the Moon. It truly is amazing that we can learn so much from an object as simple as a rock. 00:05:10.560 --> 00:05:16.880 And thanks to the work from rock stars like Ryan and Andrea, we are one step closer to understanding 00:05:16.880 --> 00:05:24.240 and appreciating the wonders of our universe. And that is rock solid! See you next time on Real 00:05:24.240 --> 00:05:25.459 World.