(CNN) After sitting untouched in storage for nearly 50 years, lunar samples collected during the Apollo 15, 16 and 17 missions will be studied for the first time, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced Monday.

The announcement came during Bridenstine's discussion of the agency's Moon to Mars initiative and the 2020 budget . NASA selected nine teams to study the moon samples and awarded a total of $8 million for their research.

"By studying these precious lunar samples for the first time, a new generation of scientists will help advance our understanding of our lunar neighbor and prepare for the next era of exploration of the Moon and beyond," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, in a statement. "This exploration will bring with it new and unique samples into the best labs right here on Earth."

The three samples from the final three Apollo missions have never been exposed to our atmosphere on Earth. Six of the nine teams will study the Apollo 17 sample, delivered to Earth in a vacuum-sealed drive tube that astronauts Harrison Schmitt and Gene Cernan hammered into the lunar surface to collect a material core in 1972.

It's about 1.8 pounds of rock layers as they were found on the moon. The sample has been in storage at NASA's Johnson Space Center since December 1972.

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