Total B.S.
As soon as he wrote, "I showed it to a geologist.." I knew this was fake.
Cheers!
Mike Tettenborn
On 03/02/2011 7:52 PM, Matson, Robert D. wrote:
If the sample is real, it is an extraordinarily large one (comparatively
speaking).
As such, it's surprising that someone would be dumb enough to try to sell it
on eBay. --Rob
-----Original Message-----
From: Thunder Stone [mailto:stanleygr...@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2011 4:42 PM
To: mike; Matson, Robert D.
Cc: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com
Subject: RE: [meteorite-list] Apollo Moon rock sample on eBay?
All:
Appears it is illegal to own one - but as to it being real - probable?
http://blogs.airspacemag.com/moon/2009/07/can-you-legally-own-a-piece-of-the-moon/
Can You Legally Own a Piece of the Moon?
A Moon rock on Mt. Everest: Not for keeps Mr. Ian Sheffield of Edinburgh Scotland is miffed. He
claims to have not one, but two dust samples of the Moon-one from the Apollo 11 mission and another
from the Apollo 15 mission. He explains that he bought these lunar samples "from a
dealer" about 3 years ago. The article does not indicate how much he paid for them, but he
does allow that each is valued at "around £2000" (about $3300) each.
A problem arose when he planned to display his samples to the public. He
apparently wrote to NASA asking if he could exhibit them. To his astonishment,
NASA refused to give him permission and demanded the return of the samples,
claiming that the lunar dust in his possession was property of the United
States government.
Mr. Sheffield's story of how the samples came into his possession is interesting. He
states the dust came off a camera film pack to which a technician in the Lunar Receiving
Laboratory was accidentally exposed. Because no one was sure the lunar samples would not
contain some possible primitive (and pathogenic) organisms when the Apollo 11 crew first
returned to Earth, they had to spend three weeks in quarantine. Anybody in the LRL
exposed to lunar material was compelled to join the astronauts in their quarantine. The
technician who was exposed went into isolation and (the story claims) upon his release,
"was given the dust as a memento."
My antennae went up at this point. No lunar samples are "given" to private individuals.
Each piece of the Moon returned by the Apollo astronauts is carefully accounted for and resides in
the Lunar Curatorial Facility in Houston, where they are kept in two separate hurricane-proof
vaults. Many lunar samples are loaned to scientific institutions for study. The only lunar samples
given away (of which I am aware) were to about a hundred national leaders during President Nixon's
1969 world tour. The beautiful "Space Window" in the Washington National Cathedral,
honoring man's landing on the Moon, holds a 7.18-gram basalt from Mare Tranquillitatis, on loan to
the Cathedral. Other moon rocks were presented to the Apollo astronauts (and Walter Cronkite) in
2004. However, each plaque came with a catch: the lunar samples can not be personally held by the
recipients, and must be displayed at a local school or museum. Recently, Astronaut Scott Parazynski
was loaned a sample of the Moon's regolith that he carried to the summit of Mount Everest.
Some diplomatic gifts of lunar samples have found their way onto the black market. A
notorious case is a sample presented to the people of Honduras back in 1969. This sample
turned up during a NASA Inspector General "sting" which was designed to catch
dealers of fake lunar samples. To the agents' surprise, they were offered a genuine lunar
rock: asking price, $5 million. A meeting was arranged and the rock (and presumably, the
seller) was seized. Another lunar sample was stolen from a museum in Malta between 1990
and 1994; it was recovered in another sting operation in 1998.
The federal government forbids private ownership of any Apollo sample. Yet, such samples
show up every now and then. The most common form they take is dust stuck to adhesive tape
(an easy way to "clean" the surface of some exposed sample container, tool, or
space suit used on the lunar surface). Mr. Sheffield's sample is likely to be one of
these pieces. Its status, I was surprised to find out, is legally uncertain. Although
NASA has sued in court to recover any such bootleg sample, no prosecution has succeeded,
except for those caught (literally) in the act of theft. In an embarrassing incident for
NASA, a summer intern and two companions carried a safe full of lunar samples out of a
building at Johnson Space Center (as Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up). They
were apprehended while trying to sell them at bargain basement prices and subsequently
prosecuted.
It was rumored for years that several of the Apollo astronauts held samples from their
respective missions. If they did, it was probably inadvertent-the lunar dust is extremely
adhesive and it is possible that smudges of lunar dust clung to personal items returned
from the Moon in their Personal Preference Kits. Alan Bean, who documents the Apollo
experience through his oil paintings, is said to add ground-up patches retrieved from his
lunar space suit to his works. His reasoning is that because his suit was dirty with
lunar dust, some of that dust must find its way into his paintings, giving them a true
"lunar" ambiance.
So Mr. Ian Sheffield of Edinburgh may be home free. I might suggest to him that
given their quasi-legal status, he is probably better off not calling attention
to his possession of these unique artifacts. In fact, although NASA frowns on
owning stolen Apollo lunar samples, there are dozens of lunar samples available
for sale on eBay. A number of meteorites recovered on Earth, came from the
Moon. Although most of them belong to national governments that sponsor the
recovery of meteorites from Antarctica, several are in private hands and can be
bought and sold, just as any commodity. Right now, there is a very nice
anorthositic breccia from the lunar highlands for sale. Better hurry though -
the sale only lasts another day. Oh yes, the asking price: a mere $144,000.
By the way, over the years, I have been asked to look at a few "lunar" samples
that were in fact, lunar fakes. Caveat Emptor!
----------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2011 18:40:06 -0500
From: meteoritem...@gmail.com
To: robert.d.mat...@saic.com
CC: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Apollo Moon rock sample on eBay?
Hi Robert and List,
I saw that listing last night. I'm not 100% certain, but I think it is
illegal to sell such a specimen. And I think it might be illegal just
to own it. And even if it's legal, there's no way to tell if it's
real, based on the photos and description.
Best regards,
MikeG
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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-
On 2/3/11, Matson, Robert D. wrote:
Probably impossible to tell from the pictures, but what are the odds
that this is truly Apollo material?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150557455015
--Rob
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