KSC-2011-7763

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – In the Granular Mechanics and Regolith Operations (GMRO) Lab at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a piece of the Surveyor 3 spacecraft returned from the lunar surface on the Apollo 12 mission is available for examination by the lab's staff. The GMRO Lab is one of several labs located in NASA's Space Life Sciences Laboratory (SLSL) facility. The lab is staffed by three physicists, six mechanical or aerospace engineers and several technicians who are studying how the rocket exhaust of landing vehicles affects lunar and Martian science missions, including the sandblasting of instruments with soil and dust ejecta and the disturbance or contamination of soil beneath the lander. For more information on the GMRO Lab, see p. 7 of the Spaceport News dated Nov. 11, 2011, at http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/pdf/603285main_nov11-2011.pdf. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann