FOLLOWING the recent moon landing 50th anniversary stories have come to light concerning our region's connection with the epic mission.

The North Wales Chronicle recently featured a story about an Anglesey man, Tecwyn Roberts from Llanddaniel, who played an important part in the 1969 NASA mission.

Another link concerning an eminent Anglesey geologist who was the first person to analyse the moon rock material from all relevant missions, has been uncovered by reporter Dale Spridgeon.

Dr Margaret Wood recently gave a talk at M-SParc - the Menai Science Park, on the island about her experience.

Back in 1958, Margaret was a young student in Sheffield. Her link to space work came about when she was invited to take part in the Brussels Expo 58, a Universal science exposition, where she was asked to help mind Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite, which was on display.

"I was just asked to stand next to it, keep an eye, as people were coming round to look at it. It had been used in a mission that year, and it was the first thing in space, everyone wanted to see it.

"I was surprised at how small it was, it was only 23 inches in diameter, I'd imagined it to be a huge thing!"

In 1969 Margaret worked in Manchester University analysing rocks on a machine that could detect the smallest amounts in samples. Margaret was later asked to get involved with the moon rock analysis.

She was was using a machine that was the only one that could do total analysis to a one thousandth of a part per million.

However, at the exact time of the first moon landing, in 1969, Margaret was making her own giant step for mankind!

She gave birth to one of her sons at the very moment Apollo 11 landed on the moon.

Margaret said: "I had my third son at the very second they touched down on the moon.

"But no one was interested in our house, the family downstairs were all glued to the television watching the moon landing!

"After my son was born, I heard champagne corks popping - but it was for the landing! So I shouted down "hey, send me some up!"

"Two month's later, and after each mission I got the moon rocks from NASA to analyse, as the instrument I was using at Manchester University was the only one that could do the detailed analysis that was required.

"I handled all that came back from the moon missions that took samples. The first samples were really no more than rock dust.

"It was all done under tight security, it all had to be kept in a locked safe, in a locked room in a locked building."

"On analysis the moon rock particles had most similarities to basalt but we did see in the minerals more potassium than Earth’s basalt.

Margaret who is the director of GeoMôn was instrumental in gaining UNESCO status – the United Nations Organisation for Education, Science and Culture - in a programme equivalent to World Heritage Sites status for the whole of Anglesey'.

She has dedicated much of her life and career to the rocks and complex geology of Anglesey in an effort to create geotourism that would help improve the island's economy and create more jobs.

She co-authored a book with Dr Stewart Campbell and Professor Brian Windley, a definitive guide, Footsteps Through Time -The Rocks and Landscape of Anglesey, the first full geology of the island since Edward Greenly’s 1919 Survey.

Margaret made her name as a geologist after discovering the oldest fossils in the UK, which were 860 million years old 'stromatolites' found in Cemaes Bay in 1970.