Apollo Sample News

Ryan Zeigler, Apollo Curator

Volume 7 No. 1 • April 2025

I am pleased to announce that the next Apollo sample request deadline is Monday May 2^nd at 5 PM Houston time. Please see the Curation website here, here, and here for more details on the deadline and the submission process. For PIs looking for more information about the samples as they prepare their requests, I highly recommend the Lunar Sample Compendium and the Apollo Sample and Photo Database. Another resource that PIs might find helpful are scanned copies of most of the historic Apollo Sample Catalogs. These early catalogs are often the only primary record of the "in mission" sample handling history. Finally, the Astromaterials Data System has a considerable amount of previously published lunar geochemical data available online that might help prospective PIs. If anything is unclear, please email me for clarification at any time, and all Apollo sample requests should be emailed directly to me at ryan.a.zeigler@nasa.gov and should Cc: JSC-ARES-LunarRequest@mail.nasa.gov.

We are in the process of renewing lunar sample loan agreements with domestic and international principal investigators (PIs). The new loan agreements have evolved significantly over previous iterations of the document, and the new and improved agreements should work to keep the Lunar samples on loan to you even more secure. Similarly, the 2025 lunar sample inventories have started to go out (and will all be out by the end of April); the completed loan agreements will be due back to me by August 1st of 2025. Many of you have already returned these loan agreements and/or inventories, and I look forward to working with each of you to complete them over the coming months. Thank you in advance for your help with this process.

In personnel news we are sad to announce that lunar sample processor Linda Watts has retired after more than 48 years working as a lunar processor (Figure 1). While I always like to joke that "no one has broken more of the Moon than Linda over the decades", a joke I keep promising her I will stop telling, I think a more accurate description of Linda's contribution would be that no one has done more to enable lunar science over the decades than Linda. Her careful work processing lunar samples has ensured that scientists got the right samples, while making sure that no material was lost or wasted. We wish Linda only the best in her well-deserved retirement, and we promise to keep the number of times we call with questions that only she can properly answer to a "minimum".

Figure 1: Top Left: Linda Watts (seated) working in the Lunar Pristine Sample Lab (PSL) in 1985. Top Center: Linda Watts (left) and Andrea Mosie working in the Lunar Pristine Sample Vault (PSV) in 1985. Top Right: Linda Watts, Alene Simmons, and Robbie Score (left to right) working in the Astromaterials Data Archive at NASA JSC in 1985. Center left: Linda Watts with the Apollo 11 cabinet in PSV in 2024 (it never stops being cool, even after 48 years). Center: Linda Watts working in an Apollo Processing cabinet in PSL in 2024. Center Right: Linda Watts (seated) with Andrea Mosie, Jeremy Kent, Juliane Gross, and Lacey Costello (left to right) in the PSV in 2024. Bottom: Lokin Casturi, Jeremy Kent, Lacey Costello, Linda Watts, Andrea Mosie, Juliane Gross, and Ryan Zeigler (left to right) in the PSV in 2024.

On a more upbeat note, I'd like to thank the current lunar sample processors (Andrea Mosie, Jeremy Kent, Lacey Costello, Lokin Casturi) for all of their hard work over the past 6 months as they have tirelessly worked towards both the careful preservation of the collection, and the timely preparation of samples for lunar sample PIs, often through difficult conditions due to infrastructure upgrades or adverse weather phenomena. I'd also like to foreshadow that we are rapidly approaching the 50th anniversary of Andrea Mosie's work here at JSC as a lunar sample processor in June of this year. We are all very excited about this momentous milestone. If you have a story about how Andrea has impacted you over the years, I'd be happy to hear about it and would hope to include it in a more detailed discussion of Andrea's impact on lunar sample science in the fall issue of this newsletter.

Finally, I am sad to announce that we lost our friend and colleague Dr. Gary Lofgren in December 2024. Gary joined the Geology Division of NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC; now Johnson Space Center) in 1969 just after receiving his PhD from Stanford. In his early days at MSC, Gary was the Geology Trainer for the Apollo 15 Mission, and he was also entrusted with the vital (but tedious) job of wire sawing the newly returned Apollo 11 samples just after their return in 1969. Gary founded the Experimental Petrology Laboratory at JSC and pioneered the modern science of the experimental study of the kinetically controlled crystallization of silicate rock melts. In 1998, Gary became the curator for the lunar sample collection, a role he expertly filled until his retirement in 2012. I had the privilege of overlapping with Gary during my first year at JSC, and he was an expert mentor to me, teaching me much of what I needed to know about being a curator. This mentorship role was one that Gary excelled at over the decades, as he always had time for a stimulating discussion with innumerable students, post docs, and colleagues. He was a gentle and beloved soul to all, but give him a tennis racket (or volleyball), and he would wipe you off the court, something he no doubt learned during his years playing Division 1 football at Stanford. Gary's impact on planetary science and the curation office is still felt to this day.

Figure 2: Top Left: Dr. Gary Lofgren receiving the Superior Achievement Award from JSC Center Director Dr. Chris Kraft in 1978. Top Right: Drs. Fred Hörz, Gary Lofgren, and David McKay (left to right) participating in the "November Storytelling – The Science of Apollo: What We Learned About The Moon" panel moderated by Andy Chaikin in 2011. Center left: Dr. Gary Lofgren speaking to members of the public from the Apollo Sample Laboratory during the JSC open house in 2005. Center Right: Dr. Gary Lofgren (right) receiving a special Office of Criminal Investigations award from JSC Center Director Dr. Ellen Ochoa (left) in 2013. Bottom Left: Gary Lofgren, Andrea Mosie, Roger Harrington, and Linda Watts (left to right) in the Apollo Sample Laboratory in 2009. Bottom Right: Gary Lofgren and Linda Watts working together in the Apollo Sample Laboratory in 2009.