Looking at Moon Dust: An Apollo Artifact Comes Out of Storage

Object Details

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241,442

Video Title

Looking at Moon Dust: An Apollo Artifact Comes Out of Storage

Description

Watch as we open an Apollo artifact that has been sealed since 1973, just days after it returned from the Moon. During the Apollo 17 mission, astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent more time on the lunar surface than any previous mission. Gene Cernan, the last astronaut to walk on the Moon, brought a cover from his life support backpack home to Earth. NASA sealed the object and gave it to the Smithsonian, where it was kept in storage for 41 years. Staff brought it out to display it for the very first time as part of the new exhibition "Outside the Spacecraft: 50 Years of Extra-vehicular Activity." How much lunar dust is preserved on the object? Conservator Lisa Young and curators Jennifer Levasseur and Cathy Lewis found out when they opened the object and placed it under the microscope in the Museum's Conservation Lab at the Steven F. Udvar Center. "Outside the Spacecraft: 50 Years of Extra-vehicular Activity" is on view at the Museum in Washington, DC January 8 through June 8, 2015. See the exhibition online at http://airandspace.si.edu/eva

Video Duration

3 min 29 sec

YouTube Keywords

aviation air space national museum smithsonian airplane NASA Rocket Jet Discovery SR-71 Blackbird "Space Shuttle" History Science STEM astronaut

Data Source

National Air and Space Museum

YouTube Channel

airandspace

Uploaded

2015-01-12T19:01:56.000Z

Creator

National Air and Space Museum

Type

YouTube Videos

See more by

airandspace

YouTube Category

Education

Topic

Aeronautics;Flight;Space Sciences

Record ID

yt_RKr-z5RS8uA

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Usage conditions apply