Where did the 382 kg soil brought from the moon go? NASA brought to earth from Apollo mission

From 1969 to 1972, NASA launched Apollo missions one after another, the purpose of these missions was to bring samples from the Moon. According to a report by NASA, the space agency had brought about 382 kg of lunar soil to Earth through these missions. Let us know what happened to that soil?

After the success of Chandrayaan-3, now Australia has also announced to send a rover to the moon. This rover will go with NASA's ambitious Moon mission Artemis. Artemis is such a human mission of NASA, which will land on the South Pole of the Moon and make many important discoveries, but do you know that many years ago, NASA has already brought 382 kg of soil from the Moon to Earth.

In fact, in 1969, NASA launched the Apollo-11 mission. This was the first such mission when a human stepped on the surface of the moon. Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin were part of this mission, which brought about 22 kg of lunar soil at that time. After this, for three consecutive years, NASA launched Moon missions and brought about 382 kg of lunar soil to Earth, which included pieces of rocks apart from sand and dust. Let us know where is the lunar soil brought from the Apollo mission now and what did NASA do with it.

Samples were distributed worldwide

The soil that NASA received from the Apollo missions was distributed around the world for research, so that scientists around the world could explore the secrets of the Moon's geology and its origin. India was also given 100 grams of moon soil at that time. A small sample of this soil is still kept in the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai and the Physical Research Lab in Ahmedabad. VS Venkatavardhan, former director of Nehru Planetarium in Mumbai, had confirmed this some time ago. He had told that a 100 gram sample of lunar soil brought from the Apollo-11 mission was given to India.

NASA is continuously doing research

The rest of the soil brought from the Moon is still safe with NASA, they have been preserved in Houston, Texas and Johnson Space Center, where they are being continuously researched. According to a NASA report, many comprehensive information has been obtained from the soil about the volcanic history, cratering and surface composition of the Moon. Many important facts have also been found about the time line of the Moon and its formation.

Oxygen extracted from lunar soil in lab

NASA has also built a simulated Moon Lab at the Johnson Space Center with soil brought from the Moon, in which an environment similar to the Moon has been created, so that better research can be done about the moon that can be used by future missions. . During research in this lab, this year NASA scientists had discovered oxygen in the soil of the moon. By doing research in this lab, NASA is also preparing for the Artemis mission, so that the astronauts who go to the moon are already aware of the difficulties there.

Plants were grown in the soil of the moon

Along with research on lunar soil, the work of growing plants was also done. A report on this was also published in the Biology Journal, in fact the first flowering plants were grown in the lunar soil. Professor Ana-Lisa Paul of the University of Florida was quoted as saying that there has been success in growing plants in the soil of the moon, earlier only the soil of the moon was sprinkled in the plants that were grown, but this time only in the soil of the moon. Plants have flourished. However, after a week these plants became weak and dried up.