Mobile Quarantine Facility

This Airstream trailer is called a Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF). MQF trailers were built by NASA to be used for Apollo missions 11, 12, 13, and 14. The astronauts of Apollo 11 were the first people to set foot on the Moon, and scientists worried they might return with an infection that could harm Earth’s inhabitants or ecosystem. NASA decided to quarantine the astronauts, equipment, and lunar samples returning from the Moon’s surface for a period of 21 days. NASA planned to quarantine the first four lunar missions–Apollo 11, 12,13, and 14–to determine if Moon germs existed. The astronauts had to leave the recovery helicopter after splashdown and immediately enter the MQF. They were then closed in the MQF along with a flight surgeon.

This MQF is serial number 004. It was the prototype model and eventually used to house the crew of Apollo 14. Astronauts Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell, and Stuart Roosa, along with a flight surgeon and a vehicle technician, lived inside this MQF from February 9-12, 1971. Apollo 14 was the last flight to be subjected to quarantine procedures.