RoundupReads From the Moon to the Oval Office — Lunar Sample Makes Quite the Trip

From the Moon to the Oval Office — Lunar Sample Makes Quite the Trip

by Catherine Ragin Williams | 2021-01-27

In 1969, NASA was engaged in a Space Race to land humans on the Moon before the end of the decade. Fifty-two years later, NASA found itself in a new race against the clock — but this time to get a lunar sample into the Oval Office by Inauguration Day: Jan. 20, 2021. The goal, accepted readily, was to have the Moon rock display nestled in its new home, on a shelf in the most highly recognizable office known in the world, by the time President Joe Biden walked into his new workspace.

The only proper answer was of course, even though the first inklings of this monumental request was received the Friday before inauguration, on Jan. 15.

“I had taken Friday off, and around 10 a.m. that day, this project started to surface,” said Industrial Designer Nicholas Holland, who is the lead designer for the Exhibits team on the Communications, Outreach, Multimedia, and Information Technology Contract, or COMIT, contract. Needless to say, the vacation was cut short and, while still in his PJs, Holland met virtually with fellow team members in the NASA Johnson Space Center External Relations Office (ERO) to sketch out a rough concept for the lunar sample’s housing.

Meanwhile, in the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) Division, a sample was being selected for the honor. Thankfully, there were a few options due to some long-term loans having been recently returned, and sample 76015,143 from Johnson’s Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility was selected as the chosen one.

“We chose this sample as a good representation of both the uniqueness of lunar samples, the tiny craters made by micrometeorites that can be seen on one side, and the evidence of scientific research being done on the sample that can be seen in the flat, sawn sides,” said Dr. Ryan Zeigler, NASA’s Apollo sample curator.

Apollo 17 astronaut Ronald Evans and moonwalkers Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan, the last humans to set foot on the Moon, chipped this sample from a large boulder at the base of the North Massif in the Taurus-Littrow Valley, almost two miles from the Lunar Module. Collected in 1972, this 332-gram piece of the Moon (less than a pound), was formed during the last large impact event on the nearside of the Moon, the Imbrium Impact Basin. At 3.9 billion years old, this rock has been through some things.

And now it’s in the Oval Office — a time-averaged distance of 239,228 approximate miles from where it was first collected.

The voyage of Apollo 17 marked the program’s concluding expedition to the Moon. The mission lifted off after midnight on December 7, 1972, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center and touched down on the lunar surface on Dec. 11. The crew spent almost 75 hours on the lunar surface, conducted nearly 22 hours of spacewalks, and traveled almost 19 miles in the Lunar Roving Vehicle. During lunar liftoff on Dec. 14, Apollo 17 Mission Commander Eugene A. Cernan remarked that the astronauts were leaving as they came, “with peace and hope for all mankind.” In this photo, taken during the second spacewalk on Dec. 12, 1972, Cernan is standing near the lunar rover designed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Credits: NASA

The voyage of Apollo 17 marked the program’s concluding expedition to the Moon. The mission lifted off after midnight on December 7, 1972, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center and touched down on the lunar surface on Dec. 11. The crew spent almost 75 hours on the lunar surface, conducted nearly 22 hours of spacewalks, and traveled almost 19 miles in the Lunar Roving Vehicle. During lunar liftoff on Dec. 14, Apollo 17 Mission Commander Eugene A. Cernan remarked that the astronauts were leaving as they came, “with peace and hope for all mankind.” In this photo, taken during the second spacewalk on Dec. 12, 1972, Cernan is standing near the lunar rover designed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Credits: NASA

Encased

Our story picks up with Holland, who was charged with designing the first-of-its-kind lunar sample display case.

“Whenever possible, I like to take additive objects (designs that have individualized components like this) and integrate them into a single object,” Holland noted. “I sketched out a rough concept and texted it to the group and, together, we hashed out a new design that combined everything into one sleek-looking unit. The new direction ended up being a homerun, and NASA Headquarters approved the design within an hour of us first hearing about the project. I spent the rest of the day putting together fabrication drawings, print files, and renderings to send to Austin Simon, our team’s fabricator.”

Saturday was all about creation.

“Austin had the overall structure of the display almost fully completed by that afternoon,” Holland said. “However, we had based the build’s dimensions off of old fabrication drawings of the Moon rock casing, and had a moment of reckoning when Jenny [Knotts] brought the Moon rock to our workshop to test if it fit into the display.”

It was a hair off, with the front-facing panel a couple millimeters too large.

“Austin trimmed a tiny bit of the panel off on its interior edge, and the whole thing just fell into line after that,” Holland said. “In all, we had the whole project completed in a couple days, thanks to the hard work and excellent communication of the team.”

In addition to the sizing issue, Simon, COMIT Exhibits lead, had his own internal anxieties to process given the timeframe.

“Have you even rushed a paint job to ensure it would dry in time?” Simon asked. “After each coat of paint, I used a propane torch over it to ensure it would dry and bake on before putting the next coat of paint. When I was at this point, I only had about 12 hours until Jenny and Ryan would be there to pick it up, so I had to do everything I could to make sure the paint dried in time.”

Spoiler alert: It dried in time. Knotts and Zeigler were able to pick up the tenderly encased sample, and all flew to Washington, D.C., to get the sample delivered to the White House curator vault.

Heralding a Bright (Moonlit) Future

“I think it makes a big statement to have the Moon rock on display, with the previous administration’s [push for] boots on the Moon by 2024, and now a Moon rock in the Oval Office … I think the future is very promising,” Simon said. “I look at the White House photos every day, and am just in awe that I built something that is in there front and center. I will be able to tell my daughter when she gets older that Daddy built something that went to the Oval Office.”

Once the Washington Post reported that a Moon rock was one of the special items requested by the Biden administration for display, much speculation has been made about the meaning behind all the chosen artifacts and exhibits.

“Austin and I knew the display was for the White House, but had no idea it’d be put in the Oval Office, right next to the president's desk,” Holland said. “I was speechless to hear about its new home. It has been a few days since being installed, and I’m still coming across new articles and videos about it, which has been very gratifying to see.”

Whatever the deeper meaning, one thing is for sure: NASA will be front and center in carving a new direction for science, discovery, innovation, and ingenuity. With a nod to the past and an acknowledgement of a moonlit path to Mars, the lunar sample display speaks to both the past, present, and what’s to come.

“We are very honored to be able to loan a lunar sample to the White House,” said Knotts, a Public Affairs officer in ERO. “This display is a symbolic recognition of earlier generations’ ambitions and accomplishments and support for America’s current Moon to Mars exploration approach, which today’s workforce of the future will bring to fruition as its own next giant leap.”

In symbolic recognition of earlier generations’ ambitions and accomplishments, and support for America’s current Moon to Mars exploration approach, a Moon rock now sits in the Oval Office of the White House. Credits: NASA