Artifact: Apollo Lunar Sample Collection Bag
Size: 22 x 20.5 cm.Manufacturer: Union Carbide Corp. Nuclear Division
Part number: 11306-EM-031-00
Description: Polyethylene Flat Bag made by Union Carbide Corp. Nuclear Division. Y-12 Oak Ridge Plant, Oak Ridge, Tennessee. It comes from a sealed bag containing 20 of these rectangular sample bags to be used during training of lunar surface activities.
Description: Polyethylene Flat Bag made by Union Carbide Corp. Nuclear Division. Y-12 Oak Ridge Plant, Oak Ridge, Tennessee. It comes from a sealed bag containing 20 of these rectangular sample bags to be used during training of lunar surface activities.
The flat rectangular bag had an aluminum ring to top for easy opening and closing. These types of bags were mounted on the side of an astronaut’s Hasselblad camera during EVA.
Documented sample bags were numbered bags that indicated the order of collected samples.
Although documented sample bags of several different configurations were used on the Apollo missions, two basic shapes described most bags - cup-shaped and flat rectangular. The cup-shaped bags came in sets of 35 (used on the Apollo 12 and Apollo 14 missions) and in sets of 48 (used on the Apollo 17 mission). Flat rectangular bags in sets of 20 were used on Apollo 15, 16 and 17.
Astronaut Charlie Duke holding a sample bag in his right hand, and grabbing a rock from a boulder in his left hand. Photo: AS16-116-18649.
