After the amazing Artemis II mission, it got me wondering, could I get some moon rock to look at under the microscope? Now, funnily enough I can’t go to NASA and ask for a small amount of lunar material from an Apollo mission, however there are ways to get rock which has come from the moon in the form of ‘lunar meteorites’. A quick search and I tracked down a US meteorite dealer (Azmeteorites on ebay) and bought 6 examples of lunar meteorites, with the aim of getting a range of different materials. The first of these arrived today – a piece of Gadamis 005, from a meteorite which fell in Libya.

When the remained arrive, the aim is to get these fragments thin sectioned, polished and mounted on microscope slides for imaging. Updates will come as and the projects progresses.

My space fascination goes back to childhood, as I am sure it does for many of us, and I first write to NASA when I was at junior school with a design for a space station based on a Space Shuttle fuel tank. A few months later they sent me a letter thanking me for my design and loads of little information brochures, which I read cover to cover, again and again (and still have in the original envelope). I may not be able to go to the moon, but perhaps I can still get to look at a piece of it up close and personal.

As always, thanks for reading, and if you’d like to know more about any of my research, please feel free to contact me (see here).