• Question: How do you get your research from the rocks on the moon? Who provides it for you?

    Asked by anon-245446 to Samantha on 11 Mar 2020.
    • Photo: Samantha Faircloth

      Samantha Faircloth answered on 11 Mar 2020:

      Hello beep396, the rocks that I work on were collected by NASA astronauts during the 1960s and 1970s. I have to write a letter to NASA to request the rock samples that I want them to send to them. I have a contact at NASA who then sends me the rocks!

      To get the research from the rocks, I measure them in my laboratory. This involves putting very thin slices of the rocks under microscopes and under very special (and expensive!!) instruments, one is called a ‘secondary ion mass spectrometer’, that can measure the chemical elements. It does this by firing ‘ions’ (tiny charged atoms) at my rock samples. The rocks react to this by releasing certain elements. The elements I study are sulfur and chlorine. When they are released, I can measure them to see how many there are! It’s great fun : -)

Comments