Word: frondel
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Frondel was also a member of the Preliminary Examination Team (PET) for Apollo 11 and 12. The PET is made up of scientists who have a broad knowledge of geology and are familiar with the various techniques of mineral identification and characterization...
...July 28, 1969, Frondel opened the first box of lunar samples as the world waited, open-mouthed, for his verdict. The world was disappointed. Immediate sight identification was made impossible by the adherent lunar dust covering and hiding the rocks. Frondel later remarked that the rocks were so covered with dust that, "You couldn't tell if they were Swiss cheese or granite...
...that they carried no organisms which might be harmful to man. During this time the samples were in complete isolation. Although there have been numerous incidents of isolation chamber leakage, most have been minor. The one major leak occurred during the quarantine of the Apollo 12 samples and required Frondel to enter quarantine for two weeks himself. Failure to find the lunar samples biologically dangerous has led to the quarantine being abandoned...
THERE ARE three such groups at Harvard. One group headed by Frondel and Cornelius Klein Jr., associate professor of Mincralogy, is concerned with the mineralogy of the lunar samples. Another group headed by Edward L. Fireman, lecturer on Astronomy, has determined the time some samples have been exposed to cosmic rays by studying the radioactivity in the samples. Then, the very important subject of the organic substances and their possible implications about life are studied by Elso S. Barghoorn, professor of Botany. Finally, special types of moon rock called anorthosites which give clues about the moon's formation are studied...
...glassy spheroids seemingly strewn across Asia and Australia from space, were also once thought to be splash droplets from some very large meteor hitting the moon. Now, because no lunar material resembles tektite glass in composition, most scientists agree that the tektites do not have a lunar origin. Instead, Frondel said. "It looks more and more that they may be of terrestrial origin." However, no definite theory such as the splash droplet theory for the glass beads on the moon, has been developed to explain the tektites' origin or formation...