When you ever occur to see an keen vendor on ebay or Craigslist providing genuine moon rocks or lunar mud hauled again throughout the glory days of the Apollo moon touchdown missions, it is in all probability greatest to view that sale with excessive skepticism as any NASA astromaterials should not precisely out there on the open market, and there are severe authorized ramifications to anybody caught peddling these valuable objects.
One of the crucial infamous and brazen circumstances of astromaterials theft occurred in 2002, when three NASA interns, Thad Roberts, Tiffany Fowler, and Shae Saur stole 17 kilos (8 kilograms) of moon rocks price almost $21 million from a protected on the Johnson House Middle. The heist used a combo of tampered cameras, neoprene physique fits, and official NASA badges to drag off the cape . However promoting Apollo treasures on the black market proved to be not really easy, and the culprits lastly put them up on the market on the Mineralogy Membership of Antwerp’s on-line website. Tampa Division FBI brokers acted as patrons that met at an Orlando-area lodge the place the thieves have been nabbed and the moon rocks recovered. Roberts, because the mastermind, obtained an 8-year jail sentence whereas the others got home arrest.
NASA’s Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility is situated in Constructing 31N on the Johnson House Middle in Houston, Texas. It opened in 1979 to supply a non-contaminating, everlasting repository surroundings for NASA’s valuable lunar pattern assortment.
Contained in the safe enclosure, geologic astromaterials returned from the moon by six Apollo lunar floor exploration missions spanning the years between 1969 and 1972 are held with all associated information data. A complete of 842 kilos (382 kilograms) of moon rocks, core samples, pebbles, sand and mud got here again to Earth. Apollo 17’s mission alone returned a whopping 243 kilos (110.4 kg) of lunar regolith and rock samples.
People working on the Lunar Sample Laboratory are extraordinarily cautious about what they will say and never say referring to this topic. Strive as we would, we have been unable to acquire any direct remark laying out the legal guidelines relating to these kinds of transactions. NASA and the Johnson House Middle have exacting data of every lunar pattern and have rigorously catalogued every part that has been aboard any Apollo capsule ever to splash down in Earth’s oceans. Pristine lunar samples are saved and dealt with in stainless-steel glove cupboards, separated by triple layers of gloves, and purged by high-purity nitrogen fuel to cut back pattern degradation.
So to reply the essential query of shopping for and promoting of Apollo supplies returned from the moon, the plain reply is that no, it’s completely not authorized in any circumstance underneath extreme penalty of regulation. It’s a severe Federal crime that carries with it jail time and dear fines. Apollo moon rocks are NASA and U.S. authorities property which can’t be bought or exchanged to any non-public citizen, not even astronauts themselves. Lunar meteorites don’t apply since they’ve dropped to Earth naturally and weren’t transported by government-employed astronauts.
Listed here are the three federal statutes that apply to Apollo astromaterial trafficking:
- 18 U.S.C. § 641 – Theft of Authorities Property Moon rocks gathered by intrepid astronauts are federal property belonging to NASA. This regulation makes it a felony to steal, convert, or embezzle any U.S. government-owned property.
- 18 U.S.C. § 668 – Theft of Cultural Heritage or Main Paintings Though they’re thought of scientific in nature, lunar samples might be labeled as objects of historic and cultural significance. This particular regulation prohibits theft from any museum or authorities establishment and in addition bans possession or sale of those stolen heritage gadgets.
- 18 U.S.C. § 2314 & § 2315 – Interstate Transportation of Stolen Property If these stolen gadgets are price greater than $5,000 (akin to moon rocks/lunar mud) transfer throughout state traces, extra federal fees for trafficking stolen property apply.
Though NASA guards these invaluable gadgets underneath essentially the most rigorous safety measures, it’s nonetheless the company’s coverage to permit public entry to lunar samples from the Apollo Program by offering loans to accredited people or teams in the USA and overseas nations.
To be eligible for pattern examination, educators and scientists at universities or analysis facilities want to finish NASA’s Lunar and Meteorite Certification Workshop on the Johnson House Middle. Candidates should be formally licensed to borrow any Lunar and Meteorite Pattern Disks encased in Lucite plastic, and retain a duplicate of their certification kind that was legally signed by a NASA Licensed Pattern Certifier. These licensed educators or museum curators should additionally observe strict protocols of dealing with, safety, contamination, and particular return packaging and mailing necessities that are outlined at NASA’s Curation Site.
NASA’s ARES (Astromaterials Analysis and Exploration Science Division) performs the bodily science analysis on the Johnson House Middle and is curator for all NASA-held extraterrestrial samples. These free-of-charge, 5 to 7-hour workshops embrace hands-on periods and detailed safety coaching relating to correct dealing with of the Pattern Disks. Researchers are allowed to open and deal with show samples in air if their experiments necessitate it. Leftover pattern materials is required to be despatched again to NASA, the place it is reclassified as “returned” and saved individually from pristine examples.
“The fabric continues to be actively used,” NASA digital restoration skilled and “Apollo Remastered” writer Andy Saunders instructed House.com. “In 2022 an Apollo 17 core pattern, that had remained sealed for 50 years, was opened for the very first time at JSC. How great – we’re nonetheless studying from the Apollo missions. JSC additionally shops all the unique movie from Apollo, within the freezer in Constructing 8. Mercury and Gemini have been moved to the Nationwide Archives at Faculty Park, Maryland again in 1997.”
Whereas everybody would like to personal some small token of astromaterial from the moon, the U.S. authorities decrees have been put in place to halt any black market exercise for real samples that may escape the federal government’s possession.
Easy rule: If it was introduced again by a NASA Apollo mission, don’t even give it some thought. That little unlawful lunar rock or mud grain simply would possibly launch you on a trajectory straight to jail!
