THE SCIENCE department at John Kyrle High School has played host to a set of rock specimens collected by Apollo astronauts during the late 1960s and early 1970s, along with some superb examples of meteorites, including one originating from Mars.

The specimens were on loan from NASA and the Natural History Museum, courtesy of a scheme called “Borrow the Moon”, operated by the Schools Technology Facilities Council (STFC).

JKHS head of science, Frazer Smith, said: “We have been really privileged to host these very special materials this week.

“It’s important to recognise the tremendous achievement it was to obtain them and the incredible amount of scientific knowledge about the origins of the Moon and the Earth they gave us. It’s been really important this week to get as many students as possible to observe and handle them and then go home and tell their families all about it.”

The specimens were also taken for a special outing to Ashfield Park Primary school where they were seen by year 6 pupils and to the Ross Science Society’s monthly meeting, whose members had been sworn to secrecy about the nature of this month’s talk.

“Security is taken very seriously” said Frazer Smith. “NASA regards the moon rocks as irreplaceable.”

The specimens included Anorthosite, collected by Apollo 15, and Orange Soil, collected by the last Apollo mission (17) during their last activity on the surface before Astronauts Harrison Schmidt and Eugene Cernan left the moon for the last time in December 1972.