All_About_Space_-_Issue_94_2020

You're sudying some of the rocks collected from
the Apollo missions, how's that going?
MA: Only yesterday we were looking at those same
rocks that Neil [Armstrong] and Buzz [Aldrin] were
collecting in this [8 Days: To the Moon and Back]
documentary. I study rocks from all the Apollo
missions and to me, I mean, even right now as I
speak, I’ve got hairs rising on my back because
I'm just so privileged to be given access to these
precious samples, which NASA calls ‘the gift that
keeps on giving’.
50 years on, over 380 kilograms of Moon rock
and soil that were collected, more than half of it is
still actually curated very well.

What discoveries have come from studying
the samples?
MA: In the last ten years so many new discoveries
have come about, and many of them because of
having access to these Apollo samples. Some of the
work that we have done at the Open University, for
example, has been looking for water in these Moon
rocks, and that has been a game-changer. In fact,

that is one of the reasons why our space agency,

and the rest of the world, is actually wanting to

return to the Moon. With this new knowledge to do,

of course more science, but also for various other

reasons and to prepare themselves to go further

beyond them in the not-so-distant future.

How soon are we going togobacktotheMoon?

LJ: It’s happening now. We'vegotinstruments

that are being built at theOpenUniversityUK

companies are going to land

a robotic mission in the comi

I do my job properly, by thee

this year we'll see the UKand

European Space Agency(ESA

commit to be part of theLun

Gateway. This is going tobe

a tiny space station, notthe

size of the International Spac

Station, that’s going to bebui

near the Moon in the nextfew

years. There are already parts

being built.

enUniversity.UK

ontheMoonin

ingyears.If

endof

dthe

A)

nar

e

lt

w

s

LibbyJackson

Jacksonisthehuman

explorationmanagerat

theUnitedKingdom(UK)

SpaceAgency.Sheoriginally

studiedphysicsatImperial

CollegeLondon,then

astronauticsandspace

engineeringatCranfield

University,bothintheUK,

beforegoingontoworkwith

theEuropeanSpaceAgency

forsevenyears,whereshe

wasa missioncontroller.She

wastheflightdirectorforthe

InternationalSpaceStation

Columbussection.Shealso

hasa bookoutcalledA

GalaxyofHerOwn:Amazing

StoriesofWomaninSpace.

INTERVIEWBIO

©Open

University

©Collefge

London

©NASA

DrMaheshAnand

Anandisa readerinplanetary

scienceandexplorationat

theOpenUniversityinthe

UK.Hisresearchisinthe

SolarSystem,butparticularly

inwaterandassociated

materialsinothersystems.

Maheshgetstostudy

rocksbroughtbackfrom

theMoon,andalsomaterial

fromMarsandasteroids,

lookingintothemake-upof

theSolarSystem.Hehasalso

studiedsomeoftherocksthe

Apolloastronautsbrought

backfromtheirmissions.

INTERVIEWBIO

Above:

The South

Pole-Aitken

basin isa

potential

future

exploration

site

Left: Four

days after

launching

from Earth,

the Apollo 11

crew madeit

to the Moon

Below: Lunar

meteorites

tell a storyof

the Moon’s

evolution

© NASA

Apollo lessons