It has been over 40 years since Neil Armstrong and the rest of the Apollo 11 mission landed on the moon and took one giant step for mankind, and scientists are thrilled to discover a cloth bag filled with items brought back by the famous astronaut.
The cloth bag has been handed over to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. by Armstrong's widow back in 2013, but reports of its existence have only been revealed now.
Experts called it the McDivitt Purse, a special container that was officially called a Temporary Stowage Bag, said museum curator Allan Needell. It was was said to have flown in the Lunar Module "Eagle" during the historic mission.
Needell said that the objects inside the bag were examined by researchers at the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal (ALSJ) and they have determined "with almost complete certainty" that all of the items were from the "Eagle."
"Needless to say, for a curator of a collection of space artifacts, it is hard to imagine anything more exciting," Needell wrote in a blog post.
The bag was found by his wife in one of Armstrong's closets. He added that the items "were assembled in the Temporary Stowage Bag and saved from the fate that awaited Eagle's ascent stage and all of its contents: crashing into the lunar surface."
The artifacts include a 16-mm movie camera, which was believed to have filmed Eagle's descent to the moon and Armstrong's first steps on the lunar surface in 1969.
And based on Needell's opinion, the images taken by the camera are more detailed than the ones even shown on television.
The retrieved items also include one of two waist tethers provided in the lunar module for securing astronauts should they have to spacewalk from the Lunar Module back to the Command Module.
"We have determined that this tether was the one Neil Armstrong jerry-rigged to support his feet during the single rest period on the Moon," Needell wrote.
He also said that the artifacts were intentionally preserved in the bag, and was referred to in the mission transcripts by the Apollo 11 crew, soon after Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin rejoined Michael Collins in lunar orbit.
"You know, that - that one's just a bunch of trash that we want to take back - LM parts, odds and ends, and it won't stay closed by itself. We'll have to figure something out for it," Armstrong was recorded to have said.
