In December 1972, astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt explored the Taurus-Littrow Valley on the Moon's surface and used metal tubes to gather layers of soil samples from landslide deposits. One of the tubes collected was sample 73001, the bottom half of a double-drive tube. The tube was not opened immediately after collection. It was vacuum-sealed on the Moon and placed inside a second protective seal before being stored in a nitrogen-filled cabinet at the lunar laboratory for decades. According to NASA, this was deliberate. A few samples were deliberately saved because it was believed that in the future, technology would make it possible to obtain much more information from them than was possible at that time.
A lunar sample sealed for 50 years
