NASA grabs gran's moon speck
Source: Agencies |
October 25, 2011, Tuesday
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An elaborate mission to recover a moon rock has led NASA agents to one of the most down-to-earth places - a family restaurant in southern California.
But at the end of a sting operation, US agents were left holding a speck of lunar dust smaller than a grain of rice and a 73-year-old suspect who was terrified by armed officials.
The target, Joann Davis, a grandmother who says she was trying to raise money for her sick son, asserts the lunar material was rightfully hers, having been given to her space engineer husband by Neil Armstrong in the 1970s.
"It is a very upsetting thing," Davis said. "It is very detrimental, very humiliating."
The strange case centers on a speck of authenticated moon rock encased in an acrylic-looking dome that appears to be a paperweight. For years, NASA has gone after anyone selling lunar material gathered on the Apollo missions because it is considered government property.
NASA has given hundreds of lunar samples to nations, states and high-profile individuals, but only on the understanding they remain government property.
The latest case was triggered by Davis herself, according to a search warrant.
She emailed a NASA contractor in May trying to find a buyer for the rock, as well as a nickel-sized piece of the heat shield that protected the Apollo 11 space capsule as it returned to earth from the first successful manned mission to the moon in 1969.
Davis said the items were among many of the space-related heirlooms her husband left her when he died in 1986. She claims Armstrong gave the items to her husband.
Davis agreed to sell the sample to undercover NASA investigators for a stellar US$1.7 million. The investigators then arranged the sting, meeting Davis at the restaurant in California.
After settling into a booth, Davis said, she pulled out the moon sample and about half a dozen sheriff's deputies and NASA investigators rushed at her.
Davis was questioned for two hours and then allowed to go home, without the moon rock. She was never taken to a police station or charged.
Davis's attorney, Peter Schlueter, who is planning legal action, said: "This (is) abhorrent behavior by the federal government, to steal something from a retiree that was given to her."
About 2,200 samples of lunar rock, weighing about 380 kilograms, were brought to Earth by NASA's Apollo lunar landing missions from 1969 to 1972.
A recent count showed 10 states and more than 90 countries could not account for their shares of the gray rocks.
But at the end of a sting operation, US agents were left holding a speck of lunar dust smaller than a grain of rice and a 73-year-old suspect who was terrified by armed officials.
The target, Joann Davis, a grandmother who says she was trying to raise money for her sick son, asserts the lunar material was rightfully hers, having been given to her space engineer husband by Neil Armstrong in the 1970s.
"It is a very upsetting thing," Davis said. "It is very detrimental, very humiliating."
The strange case centers on a speck of authenticated moon rock encased in an acrylic-looking dome that appears to be a paperweight. For years, NASA has gone after anyone selling lunar material gathered on the Apollo missions because it is considered government property.
NASA has given hundreds of lunar samples to nations, states and high-profile individuals, but only on the understanding they remain government property.
The latest case was triggered by Davis herself, according to a search warrant.
She emailed a NASA contractor in May trying to find a buyer for the rock, as well as a nickel-sized piece of the heat shield that protected the Apollo 11 space capsule as it returned to earth from the first successful manned mission to the moon in 1969.
Davis said the items were among many of the space-related heirlooms her husband left her when he died in 1986. She claims Armstrong gave the items to her husband.
Davis agreed to sell the sample to undercover NASA investigators for a stellar US$1.7 million. The investigators then arranged the sting, meeting Davis at the restaurant in California.
After settling into a booth, Davis said, she pulled out the moon sample and about half a dozen sheriff's deputies and NASA investigators rushed at her.
Davis was questioned for two hours and then allowed to go home, without the moon rock. She was never taken to a police station or charged.
Davis's attorney, Peter Schlueter, who is planning legal action, said: "This (is) abhorrent behavior by the federal government, to steal something from a retiree that was given to her."
About 2,200 samples of lunar rock, weighing about 380 kilograms, were brought to Earth by NASA's Apollo lunar landing missions from 1969 to 1972.
A recent count showed 10 states and more than 90 countries could not account for their shares of the gray rocks.
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