According to research published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Earth’s oldest rock (which is 4.1 billion years old) has been found in an Apollo 14 sample from the Moon. If confirmed, it’s an amazing discovery.
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Apollo 14 was the eighth manned mission in the United States Apollo program, and the third to land on the Moon. It ws launched on January 31, 1971 and concluded on February 9, 1971.
It was the last of the “H missions,” targeted landings with two-day stays on the Moon with two lunar EVAs, or moonwalks.
The primary objectives of this mission were to explore the Fra Mauro region centered around deployment of the Apollo Lunar Surface Scientific Experiments Package, or ALSEP; lunar field geology investigations; collection of surface material samples for return to Earth; deployment of other scientific instruments not part of ALSEP; orbital science involving high-resolution photography of candidate future landing sites; photography of deep-space phenomena, such as zodiacal light and gegenschein; communications tests using S-band and VHF signals to determine reflective properties of the lunar surface; engineering and operational evaluation of hardware and techniques; tests to determine variations in S-band signals; and photography of surface details from 60 nautical miles in altitude.
In January 2019, scientists discovered that a rock fragment of the return samples was containing the oldest known Earth rock ever which ejected from the Earth to the Moon in a large impact event about 4.0-4.1 billion years ago.
Apollo 14 Mission Event List and Timeline
EVENT | DATE & TIME (EST) | MISSION TIME
Launch | January 31 | 04:03:02 pm | 00:00:00
Translunar injection | 06:37:34 pm | 02:34:32
CSM-LM docking | 09:00:02 pm | 04:56:56
Lunar orbit insertion | February 4 01:59:43 am | 81:56:41
CSM-LM separation | 11:50:44 pm | 103:47:42
Lunar landing | February 5 04:18:11 am | 108:15:09
First EVA | 09:42:13 am | 113:39:11
Second EVA | February 6 03:11:15 am | 131:08:13
Lunar liftoff | 01:48:42 pm | 141:45:40
LM-CSM docking | 03:35:53 pm | 143:32:51
Transearth injection | 08:39:04 pm | 148:36:02
Splashdown | February 9 04:05:00 pm | 216:01:58
Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr., Apollo 14 commander, assembles a double core tube as he stands beside the rickshaw-type portable workbench or modularized equipment transporter (MET) unique to this mission. The photograph was taken by astronaut Edgar D. Mitchell, lunar module pilot, standing some 170 meters northeast of the Lunar Module (LM), during the mission’s second extravehicular activity (EVA) on Feb. 6, 1971. While astronauts Shepard and Mitchell descended in the LM “Antares” to explore the Fra Mauro region of the moon, astronaut Stuart A. Roosa, command module pilot, remained with the Command and Service Modules (CSM) “Kitty Hawk” in lunar orbit.
Apollo 14 was the eighth manned mission in the United States Apollo program, and the third to land on the Moon.
This photo was taken on February 6, 1971. This is a cropped and resized image. You can see the original photo on the NASA Spaceflight website.
Sources
- Apollo 14 on Wikipedia
- Apollo 14 Mission on lpi.usra.edu
- Apollo 14 on the NASA website
