Experiment, Solar Wind Composition, Apollo

This experiment was deployed on Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, and 16 to determine the chemical composition of solar wind. The moon provided an excellent location to study solar wind because, unlike the Earth, it has no magnetic field to deflect solar wind. The solar wind composition experiment consisted of an aluminum (or in the case of Apollo 16, aluminum and platinum) foil sheet erected on a pole. The charged particles comprising the solar wind would embed themselves in the foil, which would be taken back to Earth for analysis.

This unit was used for astronaut training and was transferred to the Smithsonian in 1974.