(CGUHS) On Wednesday, September 18, SEDS (Students for the Exploration and Development of Space), students from the CTE Engineering and CTE Software & App Design programs, traveled to the Lunar & Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona. The reason for the trip was to attend the first in a series of Evening Lectures titled “Return to the Moon”.
The lecture, titled “New Insights from Old Lunar Samples”, was presented by Dr. Jessica Barnes, Assistant Professor of the Lunar & Planetary Institute. Dr. Barnes and her team are a part of the NASA Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis Program (ANGSA). The goal of this project is for nine teams of scientists and engineers from around the country to examine samples returned from the Moon by Apollo astronauts between 1969 and 1972. These pristine samples include core samples sealed on the lunar surface, kept frozen at -20° C, and stored in Helium. After 50 years in storage, technology has progressed to the point where these samples can be examined in ways not possible in the early 1970s.
Our students remained after the lecture to have their questions answered by Dr. Barnes in a more one-on-one discussion. Students also received door prizes in the form of framed photographs of sections of Moon rocks with the grains of various minerals depicted. One of our students received a 3D printed plaque of the Copernicus Crater region that has been used by the unsighted to study the lunar surface. They can feel the craters and other features of the Moon.
The group plans to return to the University of Arizona in October for the second in the Evening Lecture Series, “Lunar Time Machine: Traveling Back to the Earliest Days of Our Nearest Neighbor” by Dr. Jeffrey Andrews-Hanna.
The Cougars are advised by Mr. John Morris, CTE Engineering and CTE Software & App Design Teacher. For more information about SEDS, visit
https://www.cguhsd.org/cgSEDS.aspx.