Word: apollos
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...music box ground out Fly Me to the Moon, Cartoonist Charles Schulz presented each of the three Apollo 10 astronauts with toy replicas of Snoopy, the lop-eared dog of derring-do from his comic strip "Peanuts." The hound, along with another of Schulz's characters, Charlie Brown, achieved celestial fame as the code names of the Apollo lunar module and command ship. Schulz naturally wanted to meet the astronauts who had adopted his creations; so they were introduced and exchanged gifts. Schulz received a photo of the space-traveling Snoopy making an inverted rendezvous with Charlie Brown...
...that terrestrial life has already proved its immunity. Sagan, like most other scientists, believes that the odds are high against life existing on the moon. But he cautions that there is "an exceedingly small risk of possibly great harm" in not maintaining strict quarantine procedures for the returning Apollo 11 astronauts. "Maybe it's sure to 99% that Apollo 11 will not bring back lunar organisms," he says, "but even that one percent of uncertainty is too large to be complacent about...
Inadequate Quarantine. University of Rochester Biochemist Wolf Vishniac is not particularly concerned about the Apollo 11 mission, which will bring back only surface samples. But Vishniac is convinced that more elaborate quarantine precautions should be taken thereafter. On later missions, he points out, astronauts will dig for samples from below the surface, where radiation and temperature variations are less severe and the prospects of life more likely...
Whatever the prospects for lunar life, Cornell Microbiologist Martin Alexander feels that NASA's present Apollo quarantine plans are on shaky scientific grounds and hopelessly inadequate. In discussing the plans with those in the Apollo program, he says, he has heard such statements as, "Of course, it's a sham, but what else could we do?" and, "The public needs to be comforted, and the quarantine serves that function." Shocked by this seeming indifference to what could be a real threat, Alexander calls on NASA to reveal its quarantine plans fully and "to solicit frank opinions and criticism...
...million Lunar Receiving Laboratory (TIME, Dec. 29, 1967), where the returned astronauts and their lunar samples will spend most of their three-week isolation period. The space agency has also taken makeshift measures to plug a major gap in the quarantine defenses: the post-splashdown exposure of the Apollo cabin atmosphere and the astronauts themselves in the earth's environment...