The well-being of the Apollo lunar sample collection is a responsibility of the Johnson Space Center, specifically the Office of Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation within the Space and Life Sciences Directorate. Though the majority of the samples are held here at JSC, a representative subset of the lunar sample collection was transferred to a vault at Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, in 1975.
Recent events, including the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and a theft from a JSC investigator’s laboratory, placed a series of new demands on the security of the lunar samples. In addition, Brooks Air Force Base is being transferred to the city of San Antonio. As a result, the JSC Curation team initiated a project to relocate the remote lunar sample collection.
A new vault and clean room combination for the lunar samples was built at the NASA White Sands Test Facility. A dedicated NASA and Lockheed Martin team did extensive work to develop a safe and effective plan to move the samples. Through a rigorous Risk Management Plan, the risks involved with transporting the sample from Texas to New Mexico were investigated and minimized. The team designed the packing configuration that was used to effectively protect and prevent damage to the lunar samples and support equipment. The JSC team, along with U.S. Air Force personnel from Brooks and a team of professional movers, loaded all of the equipment and samples into trucks in San Antonio.
Accelerometers, loaned to JSC from colleagues at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, were placed on the truck to keep a log of the vibration events the samples experienced. A NASA security team escorted the trucks on their cross-country transit. Back home at JSC, team members tracked the convoy and kept a close watch on the weather as Hurricane Isidore moved through the Gulf of Mexico. Because of the fine work of the NASA, Lockheed Martin and Air Force team, the lunar samples are now safely secured in their new home at the White Sands Test Facility.
