BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – A half-century after astronauts collected moon rocks and soil on six Apollo missions, NASA announced it’s opening competition for the next lunar samples.When the Artemis program gets America back on the moon, at the earliest by 2024, NASA said it will pay private space companies that collect new rocks.“This is the next step in our efforts to bring the commercial sector into human exploration beyond low Earth orbit,” Dale Ketcham of Space Florida said.[TRENDING: Massive Sanford fire evacuates 800 homes | UCF suspends frat, sorority over COVID-19 | Tropics active on peak of hurricane season]Ketcham said unlike the ’60s and ’70s, these samples are about understanding what it takes to stay on the moon.“We’re going to need.