The untold story of how two Northeastern professors analyzed moon rocks for NASA a half-century ago - Northeastern University College of Science

The rocks were billions of years old. But they were new to the Earth. They were sent by NASA in 1972 via special delivery to Robert Lowndes and Clive Perry, physics professors at Northeastern University, who opened the boxes in their secured labs in the basement of Dana Hall.

“It was very exciting,” Lowndes says.

The rocks and the accompanying soil samples had been collected from the moon by the Apollo astronauts. Lowndes and Perry were among the small, initial group of U.S. professors selected by NASA to perform experiments on the moon rocks.

The first shipment arrived two years after astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first human beings to land on the moon.

“The rocks were quite small, an inch or so is what I remember,” Lowndes says. “And then we also got the soil samples, which were powders.”

The Northeastern physicists would receive multiple shipments of lunar samples that had been retrieved by the astronauts of Apollo missions 11, 12, 14 and 15 from 1969 to 1971. The rocks and powders were arguably the most precious materials in the world at that time — more valuable and rare than any earthbound piece of jewelry or source of energy.