Moon Rock Question

[BlindedByTheLight]

So I was on the internet surfing for some research for another brilliant episode of NCIS (Tuesdays, CBS, 8:00 pm) when it dawned on my that some of my peeps on the board here may already have a good lead on some good intel for me.

Basically, I want to do a heist story - with the heist involving moon rocks. Since NCIS investigates crimes involving Navy personnel, I'm looking for possible connections between Navy guys and moon rocks. If this was the Air Force investigative services, the TV guide logline could be as simple as "an Air Force Captain who works at JPL tries to steal moon rocks" blah blah blah. Since the Air Force, I believe, regularly is involved with space missions.

But, to make my question more precise, is anyone familiar with any Navy connections (however tenuous) to places where moon rocks may be stored? Or even transported? I understand the 50 states all have them as gifts. Anyone know where they're kept?

Thanks,
Steve

P.S. Selden, my "Tuesdays, 8:00 pm, CBS" was a joke-plug (a la a neurotic, ratings obssessed tv freak), not a real one (in case I was violating any terms of use of the bboard).

[selden]

BbtL,

A Web search for
navy moon rocks
immediately reveals that one is at the National Museum of Naval Aviation -- the award given to Apollo 17 Commander Eugene Cernan.

Quite a few astronauts, including Cernan, are Navy pilots.

[Telepath]

Basically, I want to do a heist story - with the heist involving moon rocks. Since NCIS investigates crimes involving Navy personnel, I'm looking for possible connections between Navy guys and moon rocks. If this was the Air Force investigative services, the TV guide logline could be as simple as "an Air Force Captain who works at JPL tries to steal moon rocks" blah blah blah. Since the Air Force, I believe, regularly is involved with space missions.

But, to make my question more precise, is anyone familiar with any Navy connections (however tenuous) to places where moon rocks may be stored? Or even transported? I understand the 50 states all have them as gifts. Anyone know where they're kept?

Steve,

You may be interested to know about a show I'm developing. It's a story about a heist involving a shipment of latex *ocks.
I understand the 50 states all have them as gifts, but I'm currently working on the storyline that the shipment went missing while on transit to the San Fernando Valley.
Still working out how exactly to make a Navy connection, but I think sailors are known to visit the valley from time to time.
The working title/logo for the show is:

[BlindedByTheLight]

Selden... thank you! I'll try and go down the Navy pilot/astronaut route. Three things I left out of importance are this:

1) The Navy connection needs to be current. i.e. the guys trying to steal it are Navy...or someone who was killed in part of, say, the planning of the heist, is Navy. The Navy museum fulfilsl that. However...

2) The location needs to be in Virginia or near D.C.

3) The quantity of moon rocks needs to be worth someone's trouble to kill for.

But you've opened my brain up on search possibilities. Thanks!


Telepath...I would have been more amused by your graphic were it a NCIS spoof instead of a CSI spoof (a mistake I would have gotten fired for had I made it).

[Telepath]

Telepath...I would have been more amused by your graphic were it a NCIS spoof instead of a CSI spoof (a mistake I would have gotten fired for had I made it).

It's always better to take the p**s out of the competition, than the boss....

[selden]

Steve,

Ripped out of the headlines, found with the search string...
navy moon rocks virginia

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/st ... ran=227191

Moon rocks stolen from vehicle in Virginia Beach

The Virginian-Pilot
?© January 14, 2006 | Last updated 11:08 PM Jan. 13

VIRGINIA BEACH ?€” Who got the rocks?

That?€™s what police are asking after someone broke into a car near Oceana Naval Air Station earlier this week and took some rare specimens from the moon.

The Virginia Air & Space Center has a moon rock display. http://www.vasc.org/exhibits/space.html

[BlindedByTheLight]

Hey Selden... yeah, I saw that. Had to file that under the "Yeah, It Happened In Real Life But No Way Would Someone Buy The Moon Rock Holder Was That Careless".

I found out about some event, Splashdown 2004 commemorating the Navy's work on reclaiming the Apollo capsules. That's gonna hit the spot.

Any geologists here? I'm wondering how someone might try and fake a lunar rock. The idea being I steal one rock...then try and sell multiple fake copies to private bidders.

Steve "Really Missing Working With Celestia" Binder

[selden]

I'm certainly no geologist, but...

As I recall, the lunar rocks are of several different types. Most are ejecta from craters, I think, so they're essentially rock that's been partially melted and solidified again.

NASA has produced some simulated lunar dirt. Apparently they're going to use it for testing of proposed methods of burying lunar bases (for protection against radiation) and other lunar soil research.
http://ares.jsc.nasa.gov/HumanExplore/E ... IC050.HTML

Essentially it seems to be ground up volcanic ash and basalt from particular volcanic regions (but see the Web page for details). Presumably similar methods could be used to generate fake rocks, too.

But I suspect you don't necessarily need or want to get it exactly right. As one of the articles I've read mentions, the moon rocks are worth more than their weight in diamonds. Copy-cat thefts wouldn't be appreciated...

[BlindedByTheLight]

Perfect, Selden! And yes, wouldn't want it to be exactly right.

Thanks!

[buggs_moran]

I have some vague recollection of some rocks found in Greenland that are supposedly as old as the moon, i.e. not changed in billions of years. They would only be able to be passed off to an amateur though...

Anyway I did some quick searches and found these. The "How much for a meteorite?" article is rather amazing...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/n ... tes27.html

also,
http://www.gate.net/~rwms/AgeEarth.html
http://www.agiweb.org/geotimes/sept02/NN_moon.html

and interesting bits from NASA

Just as meteoroids constantly bombard the Moon so do cosmic rays, and they leave their fingerprints on Moon rocks, too. "There are isotopes in Moon rocks, isotopes we don't normally find on Earth, that were created by nuclear reactions with the highest-energy cosmic rays," says McKay. Earth is spared from such radiation by our protective atmosphere and magnetosphere.

Even if scientists wanted to make something like a Moon rock by, say, bombarding an Earth rock with high energy atomic nuclei, they couldn't. Earth's most powerful particle accelerators can't energize particles to match the most potent cosmic rays, which are themselves accelerated in supernova blastwaves and in the violent cores of galaxies.

Indeed, says McKay, faking a Moon rock well enough to hoodwink an international army of scientists might be more difficult than the Manhattan Project. "It would be easier to just go to the Moon and get one," he quipped.

[BlindedByTheLight]

THanks buggs!

[bdm]

But, to make my question more precise, is anyone familiar with any Navy connections (however tenuous) to places where moon rocks may be stored? Or even transported? I understand the 50 states all have them as gifts. Anyone know where they're kept?

I believe US Navy ships were used to recover the lunar astronauts after splashdown. What if one or two moonrocks somehow went astray during the recovery process and it comes to light 35 years later?

Recovery procedures may have existed to make this sort of scenario unlikely, such as sealed boxes, careful weighing of samples and the like. However, it's not impossible for some samples to go astray during the recovery process. Maybe a small amount of moondust weighing a few grams disappeared in transit? Or suppose one of the astronauts brought back a "souvenir" that was not recorded somehow? It would make an interesting conspiracy theory.

[ziggy]

Hi all
Are moonrocks found in Antarctica? There are ones from Mars to be found there, so could there be?
Apart from scientific interest, which needs a lot of equipment to fully explore, like checking out isotopes etc.what is the use of a moonrock? Why would someone want one? A paperweight?

[BlindedByTheLight]

bdm - good ideas, thanks!

ziggy - actually, I have learned the going rate on one of the Goodwill moon rocks (the ones we gave to all the nations of earth in '73) is about five million bucks. rock collectors, space buffs, etc. will pay cash - at least according to NASA's former moon rock investigator (who I have been hooked up with).