Word: lunar
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Rare Gases. About one thing, U.S. space scientists have no complaint: Apollo 11 provided them with a wealth of data and lunar material. Last week, as they completed no fewer than 152 preliminary tests on 55 lbs. of lunar rocks and dust, they made several more interesting discoveries. Geochemist Oliver Schaeffer, seeking to determine what gases are expelled from the sun as solar wind, heated a pinch of moon dust to 3,000° F. Analyzing the escaping gases, he found that the lunar surface had absorbed considerable helium and hydrogen from the sun. But he also noted surprisingly large...
What the scientists were unable to detect conclusively was any sign of life. One chemist placed samples of lunar dust and rock chips under a 300,000-power microscope and found no evidence of lunar organisms, either living or fossilized. Another chemist did detect a trace of carbon, an element essential to life. But it was mainly volatile hydrocarbons that are familiar ingredients of lubricating oil; they might well have come from tools, or from the cabinets in which the samples had been placed...
...packed off into a world of saran-wrapped sterility--all in all, a delightful thought, in which the nation and the moon germs could only stand to gain. Unfortunately, it didn't happen, Houston, unwilling to sacrifice such other-worldly germs, packed them and the astronauts off to the Lunar Receiving Station free of any presidential contamination...
...scientific examination of the rocks. But they were kept busy in their sealed-off quarters in the LRL with daily debriefings with NASA officials and fellow astronauts, including the crewmen of the scheduled Apollo 12 flight in November. Many of the discussions centered on such technical problems as the lunar module's limited fuel reserves. Because Neil Armstrong was forced at the last minute to take over the controls to avoid setting down in a boulder-strewn crater, NASA has scheduled landings on only the flattest lunar terrain until the LM's fuel capacity can be increased. That...
...health of the astronauts was described as excellent. Armstrong has lost just under six pounds and Buzz Aldrin three, but neither man has displayed any obvious ill-effects from the gravity-free flight, the lunar stroll or the lunar environment. Mike Collins, who remained behind in the command ship, lost no weight at all. Locked away with 16 other men-including two doctors and a NASA public relations man-the astronauts spent their free hours playing pingpong, watching color TV and reading the accounts of their voyage (which are sent through an air lock and sterilized by ultraviolet light). After...