heroicrelics.org Return to Udvar-Hazy Center |
Mobile Quarantine Facility |
During the build up to the manned lunar landing, there was growing concern that the astronauts might bring back some sort of "moon germs" and infect the Earth; no Earthlings would have immunity to this foreign plague, the thinking went, and there would be mass extinctions as the lunar microorganisms ran rampant. Refer to Section V of the Biomedical Results of Apollo or Chapter 7 of Where No Man Has Gone Before: A History of Apollo Lunar Exploration Missions for additional (and less dramatic :-) accounts of the proposed precautions. In addition to the eventually implemented "biological isolation garment", or BIG (plural, BIGs), a specially-converted Airstream trailer was configured to prevent the release of any of those pesky lunar organisms. NASA photos 69-H-1196, S69-21881, and S69-40147 show the astronauts and the MQF. |
|