NASA forgot to make a moon rock box, so it called Oak Ridge
Y-12, we have a problem. In 1967, before one man took one giant leap for mankind, NASA called scientists at Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge with a specific request.
Apollo 11 was preparing to land on the moon in a spectacular fashion, and NASA had forgotten something major: It didn’t have a safe way to bring back any moon rocks.
NASA had a lot of stipulations: The boxes had to vacuum seal the lunar samples to prevent contamination. The boxes had to withstand spacecraft vibration during the flight. And they definitely couldn’t leak.
Plus, scientists were unsure about what effects the Earth’s atmospheric pressure and gases could have on the rocks. And there was always that lingering fear that astronauts would accidentally bring back some sort of microorganism that could, you know, end the human race. The folks at Y-12 could back then, and still do, create some of the most far-out innovations on earth. They loved the challenge to design and build the Apollo Lunar Sample Return Containers — better known as moon boxes.
“They had the rockets, they had the astronauts, they proved that they could rendezvous in space, and this was almost an afterthought,” Paul Wasilko, Y-12’s director of operations integration, said with a laugh.
You see, Y-12 already had experience crafting metal components for other government agencies. Workers there built the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan and created the first light water reactor, the direct ancestor of modern nuclear power plants.
“They said, ‘Yeah we can do it!’ but they didn’t know how they were going to do it,” Wasilko said. “Usually, if it’s hard and difficult, Y-12 gets a call.”
The folks in Oak Ridge worked with NASA’S specs to develop a nearly seamless container about the size of a bread box that was made from a solid piece of aluminum. The box had large handles — to fit space gloves, of course — and four metal straps made to help out in zero gravity.
Y-12 scientists used three layers of metal and Teflon, the lowest friction plastic that is used on many non-stick pans today, to seal the box’s lid. In fact, scientists at Oak Ridge were the first to use Teflon, something Wasilko still brags about.
Inside the box, bags and vials were included for astronauts to collect and keep smaller rocks and moon dust. A metal mesh lining was knitted by a woman in Oak Ridge to keep rocks safe inside the box.
Mission accomplished
When Apollo 11 completed the first moon landing, astronauts carried more than 50 pounds of lunar material in two of Y-12’s moon boxes. Mission accomplished: The samples made it home without incident and brought no alien invasion.
It was the start of a great partnership. Y-12 and NASA went on to produce 16 boxes that traveled on six missions between 1969 and 1972, bringing 842 pounds of moon rock to Earth’s surface to be studied. Several of the moon boxes are on display at Y-12 in Oak Ridge, while the others are kept at NASA, the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge and the Smithsonian Institution.
Wasilko arrived at Y-12 a few years after the moon boxes were built, but he remains their biggest champion. He’s excited about the possibilities of the boxes going up into space again, whether astronauts are walking on the moon again or exploring another planet.