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The moon rock of the Montreal Science Center comes from the NASA Johnson Space Center, transported in a lunch box
Source: Center Montreal Science Center
] MONTREAL – You do not just get out of NASA with a moonstone, of course.
Sara Arsenault, an employee of the Montreal Science Center, told Space.com that she was so nervous when she was carrying her precious cargo in April. She missed her first flight from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, forcing her to try again.
The centerpiece of 24 grams (0.8 ounce) of a new exhibition was carefully placed in a lunch bag to avoid attracting attention. attention of other passengers. Customs officials, however, were rightly suspicious and scrutinized an explanatory letter sent by NASA, Arsenault said last Friday (20 July). "And besides, I was so worried that I forget it in a cab or something," she recalls. [Should We Open Some Sealed Apollo Moon Samples?]
Despite his adventures, Arsenault went back to Montreal safely with his fragment of a 3.8 billion year old rock from the human landing mission. Apollo 17 in 1972 – part of the same touchable moon set. She added that rocks are found in institutions such as the Houston Space Center and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.
Arsenault refused the chance to touch a lunar rock during his tour at Space Center Houston. "I wanted this rock to be my first," she said, gesturing to the new exhibit – which was already attracting a crowd of visitors on the first afternoon of July 20 at the museum. The exhibition was scheduled to open at the 49th anniversary Sara Arsenault (center) of the Montreal Science Center examines lunar rocks at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston “/>
Sara Arsenault (center) of the Montreal Science Center examines lunar rocks at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston
Source: Montreal Science Center
Water Through the Universe
Arsenault is Head of development and production project at the Montreal Science Center. which attracts around 700,000 visitors a year – half of them during the summer months. The museum is located in the bustling Old Port of Montreal on the St. Lawrence Seaway, which serves as a major sea lane in Canada.
The water is everywhere in this neighborhood of Montreal, but on the moon, there is also a colony of astronauts. Multiple missions have found evidence of hydrogen on the surface, which scientists interpret as a signature of ice water. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter long-term research and a 2017 map generated from LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) information mapped water in detail for possible future landing missions
In 1969, no one imagined that there would be water on the moon, Arsenault said, let alone on other worlds in the solar system. We now know that it is abundant – springing from cracks in Saturn's moon Enceladus, hiding in permanent shadows on Mercury, lingering even in Jupiter's atmosphere after that fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 were crushed in 1994.
A picture at wholesale plan of the 24 gram lunar rock exposed at the Montreal Science Center in Canada.
Montreal Science Center
The new exhibition of the Montreal museum highlights some locations for water in the solar system. Orbiting the Earth, Canada's Radarsat-2 satellite maps the first few centimeters of soil, providing insight into how the location of water changes with climate change. NASA's 2008 Mars Phoenix mission (in which Canada participated) examined the water ice at the North Pole of Mars. The link between water and life is shown in a 3.77 billion year old rock from northern Quebec, with probably some fossils inland – some of the oldest known on Earth. (A study on Quebec rocks attracted international attention in 2017, when the discovery was announced.)
Museum officials also threw out space hardware to attract the attention of visitors, even if the material is not necessarily directly related to water. . This includes a robotic Canadarm model that was on display at an installation of the Canadian manufacturer MDA, as well as one of the landing pads of the Apollo lunar module manufactured by Héroux-Devtek of Montreal (formerly known as Héroux)
Spokespersons say the center has plans for the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 in 2019, but details still need to be finalized. This anniversary will probably be a popular day for space museums in North America. The Apollo 11 command module will be at the Seattle Flying Museum that day, as part of a current Smithsonian tour. The Smithsonian itself traditionally projects programming around Apollo 11's five-year anniversary milestones; it also refreshes its Lunar Exploration Exhibition for 2020.
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