The moon rock that will be on display at the Anchorage Museum in May was taken from this larger parent sample, known as the “great Scott rock,” from the 1971 Apollo 15 mission. (Photo courtesy of NASA)
When I talk with friends and family Outside, oftentimes they act like Alaskans are from outer space – we ride bikes year-round, we hike and camp in bear country, some of us eat muktuk and seal oil (no muktuk for me, but I’ve done the seal oil thing).

Clearly we’re not the strange ones -- it’s everybody from the Lower 48.

But the claim that we’re a little spacy will get some support come May when a chunk of 3.3 billion year-old moon rock lands at the Anchorage Museum’s new Imaginarium Discovery Center. The center is part of the museum’s giant makeover that’s taken the last few years; the Imaginarium opens May 22.

NASA is loaning the museum the moon rock that’s about the size of a plum to be part of a science exhibit that also features a meteorite and an Alaska rock geologically similar to the lunar sample. The museum will house the moon rock for at least five years.

The lunar sample was collected during the 1971 Apollo 15 mission, the fourth mission to the moon.

Below is the full press release from the museum.

It is an exciting time at the museum, the “Star Wars” exhibit opens next week, then in May we get a real piece of outer space.

Cool!

-- Steve

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NASA loans moon rock to Anchorage Museum

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is loaning a lunar sample to the Anchorage Museum for display. This is the first moon rock loaned to an Alaska museum by the Johnson Space Center, the NASA center that administers and controls the lunar display loan program.

The moon rock on its way to Anchorage is 3.3 billion years old. It weighs 110 grams, or about 4 ounces, and is about the size of a plum.

Anchorage Museum visitors can see the moon rock in the museum’s new Imaginarium Discovery Center, which opens May 22. The moon rock will be highlighted in a space science exhibit, which also features a meteorite and an Alaska rock geologically similar to the lunar sample. The exhibit explains what these rocks reveal about the solar system’s origins. Anchorage Museum science educators are developing exhibit content with assistance from U.S. Geological Survey, a federal scientific agency.

“The Anchorage Museum is excited to collaborate with NASA on several projects, including the loan of the lunar sample,” said James Pepper Henry, Anchorage Museum Director and CEO. “The moon rock is a testament to the achievements and potential of humankind for exploration beyond our terrestrial home. Our museum visitors will be amazed at experiencing firsthand an extraterrestrial item returned from the only heavenly body ever visited by humans.”

The lunar sample (designated 15555,919) that will be displayed at the Anchorage Museum was collected during the 1971 Apollo 15 mission with astronauts Jim Irwin, Dave Scott and Al Worden. This was the fourth mission to land on the moon, focusing on the Hadley-Apennine region of the lunar surface. During this mission, astronauts used the first lunar roving vehicle, allowing them to cover more ground and collect more varied samples.

The parent sample (known as the “great Scott rock”) from which the display sample was cut weighed 9,614 grams, or about 21 pounds. Collected by astronaut Scott, this rock was the largest returned to Earth up to that time. A blocky, angular, vuggy (holey) rock of brownish-gray color, its texture is homogeneous with medium-to-coarse grain. It is a basalt (volcanic) rock composed of 55 percent pyroxene, 26 percent plagioclase, 15 percent olivine, 3.5 percent opaque minerals and .5 percent cristobalite.

The Anchorage Museum submitted its lunar sample loan application to NASA in April 2009, and received a five-year loan agreement Tuesday.