Our understanding of cosmochemistry and the origin of life is profitably discussed in the two stages represented by that phrase. Our surest information on cosmochemical products relates to sets of amino acids that originated from the simplest forms of matter in the cosmos. This study is necessarily one of analytical chemistry. The second stage is the evolution to living cells from those amino acids (Fox, 1972; Kvenvolden, 1974). Amino acids are seen as having been chemical precursors successively to protein and to the ubiquitous biological cells whose structure and function depend mainly upon protein. In obtaining this kind of information, a constructionistic approach has been uniquely informative (Fox, 1977). This approach consists of experiments in assembly followed by selection from the products; constructionism is in the style of evolution itself. Analytical studies alone are inadequate (Fox, 1981).

Hydrolyzates of aqueous extracts of Apollo 11 fines, an Apollo 12 trench sample, and an Apollo 12 surface sample have been analyzed on an ultrasensitive amino acid analyzer. The total content of amino acids recovered ranged from 20 to 70 parts per billion of lunar soil. Amino acids are not recovered by the direct hydrolysis of lunar fines, presumably because of decomposition in the presence of the large excess of lunar mineral. As judged by retention time, glycine is the dominant amino acid found; alanine is secondarily present in each case in the profile. Only a few amino acids have been recorded in each analysis. The pattern is relatively consistent in the samples from the three locations; the pattern from either hydrolyzed or unhydrolyzed extracts differs markedly from that of hydrolyzed or unhydrolyzed handprints. The evidence is not consistent with contamination of the kind expected by many investigators.

Acid hydrolyzates of aqueous extracts indicated: glycine, alanine, glutamic acid, serine, aspartic acid, threonine, and α,β-diaminopropionic acid. The sources of these amino acids may be terrestrial contaminants, fuel exhaust products, or indigenous lunar material. The lunar particles found in the sample include: (i) spherules, rotational ellipsoids, dumbbells, tear-drops, rings, and crescents which have (ii) diameters of 0.1 to 500 microns; (iii) budlike features on the particles; and (iv) chemical inhomogeneity (electron probe). Some of the processes and results inferred for the moon have been simulated by the electron beam and low pressure of the electron microscope. Basalt (Kilauea-Iki) and chondrite (Orgueil) have been found to behave similarly.