Scientists had a plan to stop Apollo 11 from bringing back moon microbes. It wouldn't have worked

Fifty-four years ago, NASA launched Apollo 11, the mission that would bring the first human beings to the surface of the moon.

NASA officials knew there was a distant possibility that lunar microbes could pose a threat to the Earth if they existed — and according to Degroot's archival work, they knew that they couldn't stop them from escaping. But at the time, scientists couldn't say the possibility of contamination was zero. Several experts suggested that there could be"transient lunar phenomena" or that life existed just beneath the surface of the moon. Planetary scientist Carl Sagan suggested that the moon could have microbial life if it is a reflection of what Earth looked like in the past.

Meanwhile, federal regulators and scientists in other fields wanted to look at the risk level the missions posed to the U.S. itself and its population on the ground. The idea was scrapped. But with only a year left before launch, there was still no real plan for testing whether the LRL even worked as a quarantine facility, leaving engineers scrambling.

Degroot wrote that a 30-day test in March and April, which included mock lunar samples, had"alarming" results that showed the LRL was not as contained as previously thought and did not have the required contingencies. Mitigation efforts on the actual day included requiring Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin — the two Apollo 11 astronauts who walked on the moon — to brush off as much moon dust from their spacesuits as possible and requiring the navy divers retrieving their space capsule to wear biological isolation garments, and bring extras for the astronauts.

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