Forty-year-old scoop helps future NASA exploration of Moon

William Atkins
Saturday, 21 June 2008 22:15

Science - Space

However, the scoop is kept into a airtight container so it can be kept in a pristine condition (as when taken from the Moon), and not be degraded with Earth contamination.

Therefore, the ISRU team borrowed special photographical equipment and methods from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center so they could measure the scoop without touching it, instead from photographs taken of the scoop.

The photographs allowed the scientists to use mathematical triangulation to measure points on the scoop in order to determine its dimensions.

The software used in this process was developed through the efforts of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (created in the mid-2000s after the space shuttle Columbia was destroyed over Texas while returning from space in 2003).

According to the NASA news story, Juan Agui, a member of the ISRU team, stated, "Photogrammetry is pretty good. We got measurements of the scoop accurate to 0.030 or 0.040 inch (~1 mm)." [NASA: “Apollo Relic Reveals its Secrets”]

A duplicate of the scoop has now been constructed and NASA scientists are using the replica to simulate the digging into (also) simulated lunar soil.

Agui adds, “Measurements of digging forces are underway. The replicated scoop digs into a rectangular "soil bed" filled with JSC-1a, an artifically-made moondust substitute that closely matches the known properties of lunar regolith, while a computer monitors bearing forces.

He states, "Our team is quite pleased to find that the measurements appear to be close to reproducing [the best] Surveyor 7 data from the Moon." [Surveyor 7 was another spacecraft sent to the Moon by NASA in the 1960s.]

With the information learned from the Surveyor 3 scoop, the team is testing different scoop designs and refining theories of lunar soil mechanics.

Agui concluded, "Obtaining the Surveyor replica really made the difference."

Additional information about the history of the scoop and other related facts pertinent to this investigation is also found on the NASA website “Apollo Relic Reveals its Secrets”